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 first reading for this weekend is, I think, a precious

text indeed. For it shows us the church in action in its very earliest days. So we're

reading from the wonderful Acts of the Apostles, and I've urged you, especially during

this Easter season, maybe take out your Bibles and read through the Acts of the Apostles.

It's a fascinating text, and it's really fun to read, I think, full of interesting characters

and great actions and adventures. So read your way through the Acts of the Apostles.

The period being described in our first reading is from the, you know, 40s or 50s of the

first century. So maybe a decade or two after the death and resurrection of the Lord. So

we're in the very earliest days of the church. But I think what we're seeing is a kind of

distant mirror, if I can use Barbara Tuckman's famous phrase, that in this distant long

ago mirror, we can see a reflection of ourselves. Because we hear of a controversy in the church

and a synod. Sound familiar? Catholics who have been watching the church's life for the

past couple of years? Well, their controversy wasn't like ours. It gave rise to the synod

and the family. But it was a controversy around the relationship between the Jesus movement,

I'll call it, and the classical Judaism from which it sprang. So, you know, it's a standard

difficulty. Here's classical biblical Judaism. And from it is coming this new movement. What's

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