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, we enter now into the Easter season. We meditate upon these

wonderful stories from the gospels. They're about the ways that the risen Christ interacts

with His Church. Yes, 2000 years ago, but also today, these are all our stories. It's

very important that we move into the dynamics of these great accounts. The one today is

from the gospel of John. It is we hear the evening of that first day of the week. It's

Resurrection Day. It's the day of the new creation. John's gospel harkens back often to the

beginning of the book of Genesis. In the beginning was the Word, John says, well, that echoes

the bearish sheet, the in the beginning with which the Bible begins. Well, here now he's

saying on this first day, it's a day of a new creation. Resurrection day. But the disciples

haven't yet grasped the meaning of this novelty because they're still living in fear. It says

the doors were locked for fear of the Jews. Now a pretty understandable fear. Jesus, their

leader has just been crucified. The most frightening death someone could die. Of course, they were

afraid. The same fate might be awaiting them. Well, the disciples locked away in the upper

room. Our revocative of all of us down to the ages, afraid, isolated, defensive, conditioned

it every turn by the fear of death. So you think of that upper room. That's where all of us live

much of the time. Hemmed in by death. Fear of death brewed over us. Keeps us locked into

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