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, our gospel for this weekend is Matthew's version of the

great parable of the sower. I've got a reproduction of Van Gogh's painting of this scene in my

room at the seminary, very beautiful, lyrical picture that Van Gogh painted. Because for

me it sums up the work I'm trying to do, which is sewing the word and you sew the word,

you're not quite sure where it's going to land, but you sew anyway. On Matthew's

telling, Jesus goes down to the sea of Galilee and he attracts an enormous crowd of listeners.

This is representative of that hunger I talk about all the time, the hunger for the Word

of God. They sense the power of God in Jesus and they wanted it desperately with all their

hearts. So it still goes with the Word of God. I can see it even, I might even say especially

in those atheists who listen with such attention to what I say on YouTube. I'm intrigued by

that that very often atheists who claim to hate religion, to not believe in God, but yet

they come back over and over again to listen. So it goes with everybody up and down the

ages. We're all wired for God. And so we all want to listen. It says he spoke to them

at length in parables. Interesting, isn't it? That was the form of speech that Jesus typically

used. Well, why didn't he just lay things out plainly? Why didn't he just say things straight

forwardly? Why all these puzzles and riddles? Well, you know, it's the way poet speak.

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