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.

Please be with you. Friends, we continue our reading of the magnificent Gospel of Mark and the scene for today is terrific.

But the church gives us as the first reading, a passage from Deuteronomy,

and it's very important that we get this right I think because we're meant to read the gospel

passage in light of this passage.

Anyway, even if you're a reader of the Book of Deuteronomy, there's a very good chance you're

going to just plow right past this.

But the passage that we're looking at today is of signal importance.

Listen now, it's Moses speaking to the people before they enter the promised land. He says, a prophet like me,

will the Lord your God raise up for you from among your own kin? To him you shall listen. Now why was that passage so

intriguing to ancient Israel? Well because of who spoke it? Moses, there's no figure in the Old Testament more important than Moses.

The only possible rival might be King David.

But Moses is the one who combines in his person the offices of

priest, prophet, and king. He's the leader and liberator of his people who led them from slavery to the promised land.

He's the one to whom God gave the law. He's the embodiment of Israel. He's the greatest leader. He's the one indeed who went up Mount Sinai and spoke

to God face to face. I mean, who could be greater than Moses?

If you're looking from a human standpoint, what figure could possibly be greater than Moses?

Which begs the question, why would this man have said, again, listen, a prophet like me

will the Lord your God raise up for you. To him you shall listen. Well wait a minute I thought

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