He Must Increase and I Must Decrease

Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons - Catholic Preaching and Homilies

Bishop Robert Barron

Spirituality, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality:christianity

4.8 • 4.9K Ratings

🗓️ 24 June 2012

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

John the Baptist is one of the most important figures in Christianity, and provides a window into the tradition of the Jewish priesthood and the historical context of the day. John chose the river Jordan to baptize, a conscious move to display the forgiveness of sins against the backdrop of the Jewish history of Exodus and liberation. Yet while he was baptizing in the desert, likely an exercise in protest of the corruption in the Temple in Jerusalem, he was heralding the coming of Christ, one who will "baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Cardinal Francis George.
0:06.2	I invite you to join me for the next few minutes to reflect with Father Robert Barron on the Word of God, which is the Word on Fire.
0:13.2	Word on Fire Catholic Ministries is a non-profit ministry at the forefront of Catholic evangelization,
0:18.6	using new media to spread the faith on every continent.
0:21.8	Father Barron challenges us to open our hearts to the Word on Fire, which is God's
0:26.1	Word of Love for each of us.
0:28.1	If our hearts are open, the Lord can change and transform us so that we might speak with love
0:33.4	about the one who is love.
0:35.6	The global benefactors of Word on Fire,
0:37.9	with the support of the Archdiocese of Chicago,
0:40.3	now present Word on Fire.
0:44.4	Peace be with you.
0:46.3	Friends, it's our great good fortune this year
0:48.3	that the feast of the nativity of John the Baptist
0:52.0	falls on a Sunday,
0:54.0	which gives us the opportunity to reflect
0:55.8	on this absolutely pivotal figure.
1:01.6	I think it's fair to say you can't really understand Jesus without understanding John,
1:07.2	which is precisely why all four evangelists tell the story of the Baptist as a kind of overture to the story of Jesus.
1:17.1	John sums up Israel, and without the Israelite background, the story of Jesus becomes simply opaque.
1:26.5	I think I've quoted you before from N.T. Wright, the Anglican
1:29.7	theologian who said much of the Christology of the last 200 years has been largely
	...

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