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 Barron as he preaches the gospel and shares the

warmth and light of Christ with each one of us.

Peace be with you. Friends, our gospel reading for today is one of my favorites

because it's one of the most confounding. It's one I found that people really

struggle with and the only old saying about where you stumble that's what you

should dig for treasure. It applies here. It's this parable that that kind of bugs

us. That's where we should dig. We should really dig in. I'm talking about the

parable from the 20th chapter of Matthew dealing with the workers hired at

different times of the day. Do you remember? So the man comes out and hires people

at the beginning of the day and they work in the hot sun for you know eight hours

others he hires at noon others at three and still others at the very end of the

day. Then the moment comes to pay them and he pays those who had worked only an

hour. He pays them the full wage. So of course the people hired earlier think hey

this is great. We're going to get a lot more but they get exactly the same. Well

what gives? This is unfair right? So they complain and the owner says look you

know you just jealous because I'm generous. Well people say all right I guess

but I kind of sympathize with those people who worked all day. Didn't they

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