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, it's

great feast of the baptism of the Lord. It's as good a time as any to reflect on

the significance of the most primordial sacrament of the Church, which I mean

the sacrament of baptism. Chances are pretty much everywhere you listen to me

right now has been baptized. So it's a sacrament of enormous importance it links

all of us together. One of the earliest descriptions of baptism in our great

tradition is Vite spiritualis Janua, which is Latin for the door of the

spiritual life. Baptism is the way in the foundation, the condition for the

possibility of an authentically spiritual life. Without baptism we don't get in.

Now to grasp the full meaning of this is to understand something really decisive

about Christianity. Christianity is not primarily about becoming a good person

or doing the right thing or in Flanaganer's phrase having a heart of gold.

Because he lets face it anybody. Pagan, Muslim, Jew, nonbeliever could be any of

those things and mind you I'm not bad mouthing it. I hope you're a nice person. I

hope you have a heart of gold. I hope you do the right thing. But see, none of

that is distinctive to Christianity. To be a Christian is to be grafted onto

...