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 this weekend from the book of Exodus is illuminating

at so many levels that I just want to focus exclusively on it for the homily today.

We hear in those days, Amalette came and waged war against Israel. Now on the surface,

this is a report of an ancient war or to be really more honest, kind of a tribal dispute

between two minor peoples. Were it not for the Bible, Amalette and the Amalakites would

be known, I mean, maybe, to a handful of specialists historians of the ancient world.

So here's the question. Why should we care about it? I mean, why are we paying particular

attention to this reading? Well, read with a sensitivity to the multivalence of the

biblical text. This report clues us in to the spiritual warfare that always obtains

in a fallen world. Let me just say that again to you. This report of the ancient battle

with Amalette, clues us in to the spiritual warfare that always obtains in a fallen world.

So Israel in the Bible stands for the ways and purposes of God in the world. Amalette,

like Egypt, Philistia, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, and Rome, stand on this symbolic reading

for those forces that stand opposed to the ways of God. Now here's the bottom line.

Israel is always in a war and it's true from beginning to end of the Old Testament.

So we who strive to walk the path of the Lord will always be in a war, not usually, not

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