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, the church proposes to us for this week a reading

from the ninth chapter of the book of the prophet Zechariah. Now Zechariah

maybe not a household name, he's one of the so-called minor prophets. It doesn't

mean he's a minor figure or less than important. It just means he wrote a

text shorter than those of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel who are the

major prophets. So Zechariah has a shorter book but boy was he an important

figure in the great tradition and especially I must say for Jesus himself. When

you look at the teaching of Jesus and more to it the actions of Jesus you see

that in many ways he was deeply aware of the prophecies of Zechariah.

Was Zechariah lived and wrote around the turn of the sixth into the fifth century

BC? Which is to say the period after the return of Israel from the Babylonian

captivity? Very important date everybody. 587 BC when Israel is conquered and

Jerusalem is burned to the ground the temples destroyed and Israel has taken away

to Babylon. They finally after 75 years return and during that period what they

want to do is reconstitute the nation. So Zechariah is writing and speaking

...