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 as I've

been saying the last couple weeks we're moving through these wonderful

Lenton readings for Cycle A of Lent and there's some of the best gospel

readings we have in the whole liturgical year and these readings move in a

kind of crescendo as Lent is moving toward Easter. So two weeks ago we had a

story of the woman at the well where Jesus presented himself as water for a

thirsty soul and in last week we had the story of the man born blind when Jesus

presented himself as light for blind eyes. Now finally today we have this great

story of the raising of Lazarus where in Jesus presents himself as resurrection

and life for someone who has died. So thirst, blindness, death are all metaphors

for the spiritual dysfunction and we all find ourselves in. We're thirsty and

nothing in the world satisfies us. We're blind but no simply worldly pattern

allows us to see. We're dead and we can't bring ourselves back to life. In fact

we drink from saltwater that makes us thirstier. In trying to see we make

ourselves even blinder. One thing a dead person can't do is bring himself to

life. I think especially in the context of our culture this acknowledgement of

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