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. Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of York, the famous

opening line of Richard III, the Duke of Gloucester expressing his disappointment over

his situation. That line in some way sums up the whole of the play. The line gives sets the tone for the whole play.

Or think of this one,

midway on the journey of our life, I woke to a find myself alone and lost in a dark wood.

The famous opening line of Dante's divine comedy, in many ways the whole epic poem summed up in those words.

How about this one from Aristotle?

All men by nature desire to know the opening line of his metaphysics. In a way the book is just an unfolding of the implications of that line.

Or how about call me Ishmael, you know, the great American novel Moby Dick, in a way unpacking that line will be the work of the entire book.

Great writers, here's my point, put a lot into the opening line of their work. It often sets the tone for the whole thing.

The privilege we have this week everybody in the gospel is we have the very opening of the Gospel of Mark.

And there's a scholarly consensus

that Mark is the first of the Gospels written.

Somewhere probably around the year 70.

Mark is a kind of literary and spiritual and theological genius,

setting the tone for the other Gospels that would follow his.

Listen to his opening line.

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