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. The

parable that's at the heart of our gospel today from Matthew 20 is one that I

love because based on 37 years of preaching it's one of those passages in the

New Testament that really bothers people. I could pick out a handful like four or

five the Martha Mary stories and other one but this is one that over all

years I've been preaching. More people come to me and say you know Father or

Bishop I just I don't get that parable or it really bothers me. How could this

be right? I don't know what Jesus is talking about here. Well see I love that

because it proves something very interesting that the parable itself is doing

its spiritual work. What I mean is it's not just conveying correct

information about God so some parable they teach us truth about God and that's

great but other ones they kind of reach into our souls. They bug us because it's

a bit like a surgeon I suppose doing exploratory surgery that in this process

he uncovers difficulties in the body. Well this kind of parable is like that in

regard to the soul. It unmasks or it sheds light upon certain darknesses in

our soul. Certain resistances to God. So it's very interesting and important to

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