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, I've always loved the story of Namun the Syrian. You

can find it in the second book of kings in the part of the book dealing with

Alicia the prophet. By the way, one in two kings, that's a great way to get into

the Bible if you're kind of new to it or you want to get back in the Bible full

of wonderful stories. This story of Namun on the surface at least is pretty

simple narrative but boys, it pack a punch spiritually speaking. I once gave a

talk many years ago, like a half hour, 45 minute talk to a group of men just

using the story of Namun because I think it illumines so many different aspects

of spiritual life. So here's the background. Namun is a powerful and important

man. He's the head of the Syrian army at a time when Syria was a major political

power. So think of who's the leading American general? I'm not sure but major

political power. Here's the leader of the army. That's who Namun is. He was famous

influential, feared, admired. In fact, he's probably the kind of person that most of us

would like to be in a kind of worldly sense. The kind of life I want, I want to be famous,

powerful, you know, maybe my enemies fearing me, my friends and my friend me, that's the

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