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 an 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 Barron as he preaches the gospel and shares the

warmth and light of Christ with each one of us. Peace be with you. Friends, we're

reading during these weeks of summer from the 13th chapter of Matthew's gospel

which is just a masterpiece. It contains many of the great parables of Jesus and

these were just a typical form of teaching. Jesus rarely taught in sort of

doctrinal form. He taught through these evocative stories. The parables often

turn things upside down. They reverse our expectations. They make us think in

fresh and challenging ways. Well, the one we have many today but I want to focus

just on one because it's so rich. I think both theologically and spiritually it's

the famous parable of the wheat and the tears to give it its classical name. We

might just say the wheat and the weeds. So you remember here's how the story

begins. The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his

field. Well, everybody was asleep as enemy came and sowed weeds all through the

wheat and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared

as well. So the sower of the seed here, well there's the Lord and what's he

sewing? Well, the good wheat of the kingdom. Think of all the manifestations of

Christ's activity in the world. Think of the church at its best. Think of

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