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, at the commencement of the sermon on the mount, Jesus compares

His disciples to three things. To salt, to light, and to a city set on a hill. Notice

please that all three exist, not for themselves, but for something else. Look at salt first.

In Jesus' time, salt was used to season and preserve meat. So before refrigeration, meat

had to be cured in order not to go bad. It was also used to render earth infertile.

I think when a conquering nation wanted utterly to eliminate an enemy city, they would tear

down its walls, burn its buildings of the ground, then they would salt the earth. How come?

So that nothing would ever grow there again. Rome did this to Carthage, for example.

So salt is not so much valuable in itself. It's valuable for what it does, how it affects

other things. By the same token of light isn't so much for itself, rather we see things

buy it. It illuminates things upon which it shines. And then finally, in ancient times,

long before maps and GPS and all that, a city on a hill was a point of navigation. It's

the way travelers would make their way on land. They'd look at, oh, there's that city

that's north of where I want to go, etc. Now, in our rather privatized and individualist culture,

we tend to think of religion as something for ourselves, our own spirituality, designed to

make our lives richer or better. And, you know, there's a sense, sure, in which that's true,

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