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, for

the ancient Israelites the name Herod would have had some of the same

connotations that the names Hitler, Stalin, Paul Pot, Mao Zetong have for us. He

was a consummate tyrant. Now mind you, Herod wasn't many ways a great figure. He

has that title Herod the Great. He emerged out of the rough and tumble of late

Roman Republican politics. He very skillfully found his way amidst the

complex and always shifting political arrangements of the period that

really confusing period after the death of Julius Caesar. It's the time when

when Octavian and Antony and Cassius and Brutus were all vying for power.

Of course, Anthony and Octavian win and then they fall into rivalry. He was

during that very difficult period of civil war that Herod is operating. He was

born around the year 73 BC. So when Caesar died he was about 30 right in his

prime and that's how he that's the period in which he was making his moves. He

got on the right side of the right Roman figures at just the right time and found

himself first ruler of Galilee and then of the whole of Palestine. His special

patron was Mark Anthony, which is why the Roman fortress in Jerusalem that was

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