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 and 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 Baron as he preaches

the gospel and shares the warmth and light of Christ with each of us.

Peace be with you. Friends, just recently a poll was taken in England. It revealed that

the majority of people in Great Britain feel that Jesus was not a real historical figure.

Now, this is the land of Edward the Confessor, of Thomas Moore, of John Fisher, Edmund

Campion, John Henry Newman and G.K. Chesterton. Trust me when I tell you that these figures

are rolling their eyes in heaven at this finding. Because the historicity of Jesus to use

the academic jargon, the facticity of His life is of central importance to Christianity.

There are many spiritual systems that trade primarily in poetry and myth and legend.

They use those literary devices to carry their spiritual significance. As Jerry Seinfeld

might say, there's nothing wrong with it. I like myths and legends. I go back to Joseph

Campbell, whom I read with great pleasure and benefit many years ago, the comparative

mythologists who showed across the literature of the world these enduring themes that

come through in myth and legend and so on. Great, great. But Christianity is not a mythic

system. It's an historical religion that makes very concrete historical claims. And if

those claims are wrong, Christianity falls apart. Because precisely because history is

a notoriously inexact science, because by definition, its data can't be reproduced

for independent verification, the way it can and other sciences. We can verify through

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