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, on this third Sunday of Advent, we hear for the

first time of this great figure of John the Baptist. So the first two weeks of

Advent our focus has been on the prophet Isaiah who is one of the great

Advent figures. But now for the first time this season we look at John the

Baptist. It's really not possible to understand Jesus properly apart from his

great precursor. It's interesting that all four gospels compel us to come to

grips with John in a way we can't get to Jesus properly without going through

John. And his job is always the same. He points to Jesus. So he's unavoidable

that's true. But if we're staring at John we're missing the point. He always

indicates the Lord. Well, in the gospel for today the Baptist indicates Jesus in a

most distinctive manner and it's worth reflecting on. As the story opens John is

in prison. So he's been finally arrested by his nemesis Herod antipos. Remember

he was opposing Herod's marriage to his brother's wife. And so he railed

against him and finally Herod had him in prison. So John's public ministry is

over and he's within a few days or maybe weeks of his execution. And he sends

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