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 and a very blessed, very happy Easter Sunday to everybody. Hey

listen, the resurrection of Jesus is the be all and the end all of the Christian

faith. If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, all bishops, all priests, all Christian

ministers should go home and get honest jobs. If Jesus didn't rise from the dead,

all the Christian faithful ought to leave their churches immediately. St. Paul

put it this way, listen, if Jesus is not raised from the dead, our preaching is

in vain and we are the most pitiful of men. It's no good trying to explain the

resurrection away or rationalize it as a myth or a symbol or inter-subjective

experience. Trust me when I tell you they've been trying from the very beginning

of the church to the present day to do exactly that, to make it more, you know,

credible, less threatening. But none of that does justice to the novelty and the

sheer strangeness of the biblical message of what's on display on every page of

the New Testament. I've described it as the grab you by the lapels quality of the

New Testament. It's not like other kind of spiritual, religious or philosophical

texts that are trading and abstract ideas and drawing you into the dynamics of

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