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 taken from the 14th chapter

of the Gospel of John, which describes the farewell discourse of Jesus the night of

the last supper. You know, it's by far the longest speech by Jesus in the Bible, and

it constitutes something like His last will and testament. So anyone who's attuned

to the Bible and to Christ knows, man, I got to pay some close attention to this speech.

It behooves all of us believers to attend to it with utmost care. And see, I think the

distinctive texture of the Christian faith is on particularly powerful display here.

So again, I might urge all of you sometime during this Easter season, take out your

Bibles, open it up now toward the end of John's Gospel, and read this farewell discourse

of the Lord. Now, one of the clearest teachings we get from our passage for today is that

Jesus is divine. How boldly he commences. Listen, he tells the disciples and us, have faith

in God, have faith also in me. Now, I mean, we can easily enough imagine other religious

founders and prophets urging us to have faith in God. I mean, that's what they do. But

we'd be hard pressed, I think, to imagine any of them urging the same faith in themselves.

I mean, can you honestly imagine Jeremiah saying, have faith in the Lord and also in me,

Jeremiah? No, I mean, Jeremiah is presented as a deeply flawed figure. Can you imagine Isaiah

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