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, one of the most puzzling doctrines of the Church is

grounded in a text from our first reading for today and it's given a kind of

narrative amplification in the gospel. Here's a line in question is taken from

the book of wisdom. God did not make death. Let me say it again. God did not

make death. Now I fully realize how odd this can sound. For death seems like

pretty much the most natural thing around. I mean every living thing dies.

Trees, plants, insects, animals, they all die. They all eventually fall apart.

Every living thing for the past several billion years has died. As far as we

can tell we human beings are no exception to this great rule. We're part of the

natural world and that world includes death. So what does it mean to say?

What could it mean to say that God did not make death when it seems rather

eminently clear than he did? Now the book of wisdom goes on. It specifies, listen.

For God formed man to be imperishable. The image of his own nature, he made him.

And then it says even more puzzlingly, the death entered the world through

quote, the envy of the devil. Well, you know, again, this is kind of hard to

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