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 for this weekend is Amarvel. It's from the

fifth chapter of the gospel of Mark and it's a theological gem but it's also

something of a literary masterpiece because Mark manages to sandwich one

very dramatic story in between the two parts of another very dramatic story and

then he thereby establishes a dynamic tensioned dynamic relationship between

the two so it's beautifully told and with typical biblical economy of

expression. I might urge you this week take out your Bibles go to Mark chapter

five and you'll find this great story. Mark begins with a synagogue official by

the name of Gijorus. Now to say synagogue official was to say someone of

substance, someone of great importance in the community. He comes to Jesus. Now

you know we know Jesus as the incarnate son of God and so on. Gijorus would have

known him as this man with a reputation for great teaching and for healing.

The fact that this synagogue official kneels at the feet of this carpenter from

Nazareth shows how desperate he is. What's he say? My daughter is at the point of

death. It's not just sick and not just having some minor difficulty. She's

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