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, the books of Ezra, Nihemiah are among the most interesting and intriguing in the

Bible, though they're often overlooked. They describe a key moment in Israel's history.

When the exiles were trickling home from Babylon and seeking to reestablish their lives,

me, one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the whole Bible, is Nihemiah's description

of Jerusalem, which at once been a stately city, now lying and waste as the conquerors

had left it years before. To get the feeling of that, think of a Parisian return to the

ruins of Paris, let's say it had been devastated by a foreign invader, or an ancient Roman

returning to the ruins of Rome after a barbarian invasion. Or, bring it closer to home, think

of a Chicagoan returning to the ruins of Chicago, if it had been devastated by an army or

a natural disaster. That's what it felt like to Nihemiah Ezra and the other Israelites

as they came back to once beautiful Jerusalem.

Now, at the very heart of the disaster was the fact that the walls of the city had been

compromised. In the ancient world, indeed, practically up to modern times, a wall was essential

to the health of the city, a bit like the way the wall of a cell is essential to the endurance

of a cell. If a wall were breached, then a city just lay open to invaders of all stripes.

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