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 this weekend to the feast of Corpus Christi,

the body and the blood of Christ. I always love the opportunity to preach on the

Eucharist because as Vatican II famously said, it's the source and summit of the

Christian life that from which Christian life comes that toward which it tends

is the alpha and the omega of our Christianity. So there's always something to say

about the Eucharist. It's always important for us to spend time seeking to

understand it more fully. And we have these three marvelous readings today. I'm

gonna say just a word about each one because each brings forth a key aspect of

the Eucharist. The first reading is from the book of Genesis. It's the first

reference in the Bible to a mysterious figure not mentioned often but he's

mentioned in very important context. And that's the priest king Melchizedek.

Now in Hebrew, Melch is king Zedek when he's justice or righteousness. So his name

means he's the king of righteousness. He's described as the king of Salem,

Shalom. Peace comes from that. It was related to it. And Jerusalem, right? Jerusalem.

He's associated with the Holy City. So he's this figure that's that's filled with

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