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

temple for Old Testament Jews was everything. It was the economic and political

and religious center of life. But more even than this, it was seen as the very

dwelling place of God on earth. We hear in the Psalms often that though the

entire earth belongs to Yahweh to the Lord, He's chosen Zion as His special

place. And when He says Zion, you mean the temple. Here have I chosen to dwell,

we hear the Lord say in the Psalms. The temple was the place where heaven and

earth met where the Garden of Eden was reestablished, where the harmony

between divinity and humanity was achieved. Now I say all this at least in

principle. That's what it was supposed to be meant to be. For the prophets

remind the nation constantly that the temple and his rituals have been

perverted, that corruption is crept into this place of prayer, that false gods

are even sometimes worshiped there. So see that tension runs right through the

Old Testament. How wonderful, how beautiful the temple is and how compromised.

And this is furthermore why one of the great messianic expectations was that the

anointed one, the Mashiach, the Christos when he came, would cleanse and purify

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