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, these past several weeks we've been reading from a

section of the gospel of Luke that is actually rather harrowing. What I think is

we find laid out before us the great principles and challenges of the spiritual

life and what it means to follow Jesus. There are a lot of people today who might

be intrigued by Jesus. They find him interesting. Maybe they remember him as a

spiritual teacher. He's like a guru. They've got kind of warm feelings about him.

Well, can I suggest you that their ancestors are referenced at the very

beginning of the gospel for today? Listen, great crowds were traveling with

Jesus. Yeah, great crowds because he was attractive. He was saying interesting

things. He was healing the sick. He was providing with people wanted. He was

being treated a bit like a pop star. Who's this fascinating charismatic figure?

And so great crowds were following him. And so he turns to them. He addresses them.

But listen to what he says because he gives them if you want on purpose a sort of

slap in the face. As if to say, you know, following me is not a matter of

following a pop star. It's not like, you know, a walk in the park. Following me is

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