Friends, welcome to Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. Word on Fire is an

apostolate dedicated to the mission of evangelization using media both old and

new to share the faith on every continent and to facilitate an encounter with

Christ and His Church. The efforts of Word on Fire engage the culture and bring

the transformative power of God's Word where it is most needed. Today we invite

you to join Bishop Robert Barron as he preaches the gospel and shares the

warmth and light of Christ with each one of us.

Peace be with you. Friends, the gospel for this 15 Sunday of the year is one of

Jesus' best-known parables, the story of the good Samaritan. Something that Carl

Bart taught in the 20th century, he learned it from the church fathers, is that

every parable of Jesus, every teaching of Jesus really, is about Him. That's to say

they might have a moral import that we can draw ethical lessons from them so we

should behave the way the good Samaritan does, but at the deeper level all these

stories are finally about Him because He's the great model of the moral life and

the ethical life. Well this is a really good example of that principle I think.

Another place to find this idea is in Shark Cathedral, my favorite church

in the world. One of the splendid windows in the side of Shark, interweaves two

stories, the story of the fall and the story of the good Samaritan. Again

this is from the church fathers, that these two stories illustrate each other.

So let me show you with that in mind that this story is fundamentally about

Christ in relationship to fall in humanity. Let's walk through it step by step.

So listen to the opening line of the parable. How often by the way in great

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