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,

we come to the fourth Sunday of Lent and just one of the most magnificent

stories in the gospel of John. I've said it many times before John is a

theological master of course but also a literary master and these stories

think of the Wedding Fee, Sikena, the woman at the well, this one, the man

born blind, the story of Lazarus. They're so beautifully crafted as sort of

icons of the spiritual life. So we're reading a story about an event in the

life of Jesus, something that he did but we're also meant to see at a deeper level

this is a story about all of us. These are the dynamics of the spiritual life

on display and this is a beautiful example of it. So let me just look at a few

highlights from this. We hear as Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth.

Now it's a physical condition, yes indeed and Jesus really did heal of this

blind man but think now of blindness in the context of the Bible. It's often used

as a symbol of spiritual blindness. What is sin due to us? Well many things but

one thing it does is it obscures our consciousness. It distorts our vision of

things. We might be able to function very well you know in the political and

...