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 for the Sunday is a little section of

the marvelous story of name in the Syrian. You can find it in the second book of

Kings in the cycle of stories about Elisha the Prophet. Now it's not really

a well-known story but it should be because it really punches above its weight

spiritually. There's an awful lot we can drive from it. What I want to do is just

walk you through the story and draw out some of these spiritual implications.

First of all, who was name in the Syrian? Well, he was very prominent player. He was

the head of the Syrian army at a time when Syria was a major political power

and they were a fierce opponent of Israel. Think of maybe the commander of the

Chinese army today or the Russian army, some mighty force that we would see as

an enemy force. That's name in accomplished, smart, courageous, probably someone

that everybody admired. They feared a little bit. Big dealer. That's name in the

Syrian. But then we're told he had leprosy. So here's this very prominent

player, this important figure. This much admired and feared commander. But he has

this humiliating, debilitating, and disfiguring disease. Imagine how leprosy

...