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 and second readings for this weekend,

beautifully sum up the Church's classical attitude toward those in power.

I've long argued that the most influential philosopher of the 19th century was not

Karl Marx. We might think that. I think it was Friedrich Nietzsche. For this

very influential and quirky German thinker, power is the fundamental reality.

Remember his idea of the will to power. The play of power becomes really the

organizing dynamic of life. Most of what presented itself to us in the political

social, cultural, even interpersonal realms is really a disguised play of power.

Who's up? Who's down? Who dominates? Who's enslaved?

Nietzsche felt that a frank acknowledgement of this fact induces toward the morality of

what he called the uba mench, right? The Superman. The one who asserts his will to power over others.

For Nietzsche were beyond good and evil, those kind of pseudo-objective qualities. What matters

finally is the will of the stronger. As I say, Nietzsche has proved remarkably influential in our

times. Through the influence of thinkers as diverse as Heidegger, Sart, Michel Foucault,

who was all the rage when I was studying in France, maybe especially Ein Rand, the novelist.

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