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, our first reading is one of my favorites in the Old

Testament. It's a kind of hidden gem and I've been drawing inspiration from it

for years, sharing it in talks and retreats and so on. And it's one that's not

super well-known. It's an odd little corky tail. It has to do with Elijah and the

widow of Zarathath. Typical of biblical narratives, it's very lachonic, it's

very understated. You never get in the Bible, you know hundreds of pages of

character development and psychological exploration. You tend to get things

suggested in very deft strokes. And this is a very good example of this. But let me

give you a bit of background to understand the story for today. So Elijah the

great prophet and some ways the greatest of Israel's prophets has gone to King

Ahab. He's challenged him because of Ahab's idolatry. When the King refuses to

listen Elijah pronounces that a great drought will descend upon the land.

Now I'm from California, I know about droughts and how devastating they can be.

What I want to see first of all is this sort of thing is never arbitrary in the

Bible. As though God is just in a bad mood and and he's been offended so he's

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