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, many mythologies and philosophies of the ancient world help

a time is cyclical. That means that things turn round and round, always returning to

the same place, a bit like the revolutions of the planets and the stars. Endless repetition,

nothing really new, same old, same old. This view by the way is re-embraced and modern

times by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who spoke of the eternal return of the same.

So that's an old view that history just kind of repeats itself. It goes round and round.

Well, many people today would say the time is essentially meaningless. In other words,

things just come and go without any discernible rhyme or reason or purpose. What we consider

good and bad, well, there's more or less relative terms. And therefore it's pointless to say

that either is really carrying the day. Like, history is moving toward this or it's getting

better or it's getting worse. No, history is just one thing after another. You know?

That's more of a, I'd say, a contemporary or postmodern view of history. To both of these

finely despairing ideas, we have to contrast the biblical notion that history time is

purposeive. It's heading somewhere under the direction of a guiding spirit. Now, this

means something relatedly, namely that time is filled with rhymes and echoes, meaningful hints

and trajectories. You know what I mean? History is not just one thing after another, but it's

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