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, perhaps you've heard of some primal cultures in which

two chieftains essentially destroy their societies in rivalous displays of

hospitality. Now I know it sounds kind of weird but here's the scenario it's

been studied by a sociologist and cultural analyst. So one chieftain

entertains the other in this remarkably generous way like put down a big dinner

and gives all kinds of gifts, right? And what that does it awakens in his

counterpart a desire to outdo his host and hospitality, lest he look bad by

comparison, right? So you've been invited for the even given this giant dinner

you've been lavish with gifts. Now gosh, you're gonna look kind of bad unless you

answer with an even more extraordinary generosity. So he does that he out

does he gives an even bigger dinner gives even more elaborate gifts which in

turn excites in the original chieftain and even more extravagant hospitality

which in turn embarrasses his rival to do even more. Okay, so this goes on and on

until each has effectively destroyed the other. There was a French sociologist

called Emil Benveniste who did a study of this and in the wake of it I always

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