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, our first reading and our gospel center around this

familiar biblical theme of sheep and shepherding. So it's an ancient symbol for

leadership, the shepherd and the sheep. Our first reading is from the book of the

prophet Jeremiah of one of the most complex, one of the richest books in the

Old Testament is taken now from the 23rd chapter and Jeremiah is using the

metaphor of sheep and shepherding to talk about the remarkably bad leadership

that Israel had in the years leading up to the Babylonian exile in 587 BC.

That's when Jeremiah is operative and he's complaining about the very bad

leadership, culminating in King Zedekiah who made deals with the Egyptians and

he really prompted the exile of Israel. So the prophet is in high

duchess against these lousy leaders. So listen now here's the passage from the

23rd chapter of Jeremiah. Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the

flock of my pastor says the Lord. Therefore says the Lord the God of Israel

against the shepherds who shepherd my people you scattered my sheep and have

driven them away. You've not cared for them. It's pretty harsh stuff. He's not

...