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, last week I spoke about Paul to the Romans, this great

text, this marvelous text by the first great Theologian of the Church and

today we're reading from the very end of Romans, Romans 14. I wonder if you could

put this statement up wherever you'd see it. I'm your refrigerator on your

computer screen. Listen, none of us lives for oneself and no one dies for

oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord and if we die, we die for the Lord.

So then whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. I think in many ways the

whole Bible, the whole of Revelation is summed up in this statement. None of us

lives for oneself. When I spoke about justification last week, I refer to that

line from Paul. It's no longer I who live. It's Christ who lives in me. It's not the

old self that lived for itself. That's gone. Paul considers that rubbish. It's

Christ who lives in me. I belong to somebody else. It's not my mind and it's

prerogatives, my will and it's desires, my inclinations that matter. It's what

Christ is thinking and willing and acting in me. I'm not my own and Paul says that

too. You've been bought and at a price. You don't belong to yourself. Now the

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