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, I wonder if you know this old joke. A distinguished English

gentleman walks into an empty church and he approaches the sanctuary and he says,

O Lord and thy presence, I am nothing. Then he moves off to the side. Then another upper

crust British gentleman enters, approaches the altar and says, O Lord, before thee I

am truly nothing. And finally a drunken, disheveled lower-class Irishman enters the cathedral,

approaches the altar and then slurs, Oh God, I'm nothing. And the one Englishman turns

the other and says, Well, just look who thinks he's nothing. Now, the reason we laugh at

little story, which is actually one of my favorites, is not just the irony of it. It's also

a burst of recognition. We see how easy it is to turn even the most sacred moments to our

own advantage. How easy it is for the ego to use even the holiest of things for its purpose.

So you think about this, the entire point of religion, I think of everything in religion,

from the Bible to the sacraments, to sacraments, to the liturgy, everything. The whole point of it

is to make us humble before God and to open us to the path of love. Everything else is more or

less a footnote. You know, the whole thing is meant to conform us to the way of love. So when

they instead turn us away from that path, those things have been perverted, they've been undermined.

Now, both St. Paul and the gospel writers, as well as of course Jesus himself, are intensely aware

...