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 and 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 of us. Peace be with you. Friends, our

gospel for today is Luke's version of that famous conversation that Jesus

had with his disciples concerning his identity. Luke tells us this took place

after Jesus had prayed for some time in solitude. He then turned to the

disciples and said, who do people say that I am? Now over the years I spent a

great deal of time focusing on the famous answers that disciples gave to that

question including Peters, you are the Christ of God. But I want to focus today on

the second part of this conversation, the second part of this passage. Once

they know who Jesus is, they have to come to grips with the spiritual and

behavioral implications of that knowledge. It's very important isn't it? This

passage is structured this way. There's clarity about Jesus' identity and then

immediately there's clarity about what it means for the way we live. Now

here's what the Lord says, the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by

the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed. Then he specifies

logically enough that those who follow after him will face a similar fate. If

anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and

...