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, we come to this second Sunday of Lent and can I encourage

everybody to attend maybe a little more carefully to the readings at liturgy? Maybe when you

get home, take out your Bibles and reread them. Maybe read them aloud with your family

because there's something exceptionally powerful about the Lenten readings. It's as though

the church is putting us through a spring training or saying we need to get back to

the fundamentals and basics of the Christian life. Some of these are among the most important

readings in the whole Bible. Spend a little more time with them. The magnificent first

reading for this weekend is a short passage from the beginning of the 12th chapter of

the book of Genesis. Can I just say that chapter is one of the most pivotal chapters in

the entire Bible? I'll tell you why. But to understand, we have to look at what preceded

it. What came before chapter 12? Well, Genesis opens with the splendid account of God's

creative act. So in an act of nonviolence, in a speech act, God gives rise to the whole

of the universe. And he places human beings in the midst of the primal garden as stewards

of his creation. And he finds this ensemble very good. So we know of that opening of the

Bible, which is massively important. We don't live in a dualistic universe of good spiritual

things and bad material things. God is not wrestling some rival into submission, but

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