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, our gospel reading for this fourth Sunday of

land is one of the greatest stories ever told. One of Jesus' most famous

parables, the parable of the prodigal son, and I think in a way it tells us

everything we need to know about our relationship to God. But we have to read

this story very carefully. It is so artfully crafted and so spiritually rich.

Look how it begins. A man had two sons. That's by the way, that's a classic

biblical starting point. There's so many stories in the Bible about the two

sons and two brothers. A man had two sons. The younger them said to his father,

father, father, give me the share of the state that's coming to me. Now right

away we're meant to meditate on this spiritual transition if you want. We're all

the children of God. Whatever we have is from God. I mean my whole being is a gift.

The idea is to take that gift that we've been given and make of it a gift to

others, which then causes the original gift to increase. That's the physics

we're talking about. God is love. Out of that love God gives us whatever we have.

Now, now if I in turn give that away to others, then the original gift increases

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