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 today to this wonderful feast of the baptism of the Lord.

And it really behooves us to spend some time meditating on this because, I'll tell you why,

the Gospels insist that we see Jesus through the lens of John the Baptist.

They don't let us, as it were, get around John the Baptist.

You know, in some of the more recently designed churches, they'll put the baptismal font right by the door

so that you can't really get into church without being reminded of your baptism.

There's something similar in the Gospels themselves because John is there massively at the beginning,

and we have to come to terms with him to understand who Jesus is.

So here's the first thing, especially now in Matthew's version that we're reading today,

of the baptism of the Lord.

The first thing to know is that the baptism of Jesus was profoundly embarrassing.

And you see why?

For the first Christian.

So Jesus is the son of God. he's the sinless lamb of God,

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