Word on Fire Reflection

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, in today’s Gospel, two disciples meet Jesus on the road to Emmaus. He asks what they are discussing and one recites all of the data concerning him. Then Jesus speaks: “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!” He then rehearsed for them … Read moreWednesday, April 12, 2023

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, in today’s Gospel, we find Mary Magdalene weeping by the tomb of the risen Lord. She then sees Jesus and doesn’t recognize him immediately.  In a wonderful detail, she thinks he’s the gardener. In the book of Genesis, God, the gardener of Eden, walked with his creatures in easy friendship. Sin, … Read moreTuesday, April 11, 2023

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus encounters the women on the road to tell the disciples of his Resurrection, early evidence for the reality of his rising.  Far too many contemporary scholars attempt to explain away the Resurrection, turning it into a myth, a legend, a symbol, a sign that the cause of … Read moreMonday, April 10, 2023

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, our Easter Gospel is John’s startlingly concise account of the Resurrection. The Easter declaration, properly understood, has always been and still is an explosion, an earthquake, a revolution. For the Easter faith—on clear display from the earliest days of the Christian movement—is that Jesus of Nazareth, a first-century Jew from the … Read moreSunday, April 9, 2023

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, today’s Gospel tells of the women who were the first witnesses of the Resurrection. Jesus goes into the kingdom of death and brings to that dark place the light of God—and more to the point, he brings the power of God, and with this power, he breaks the hold that death … Read moreSaturday, April 8, 2023

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, today’s Gospel is John’s wonderful narrative of Christ’s Passion. On the cross, Jesus entered into close quarters with sin (because that’s where we sinners are found) and allowed the heat and fury of sin to destroy him, even as he protected us. We can see, with special clarity, why the first … Read moreFriday, April 7, 2023

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus washes the disciples’ feet. He is giving them a visual proclamation of his new commandment: “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” When we accept this commandment, we walk the path of joy. When we internalize this law, we … Read moreThursday, April 6, 2023

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus asks his disciples to go into Jerusalem and prepare a Passover supper. At the heart of the Passover meal was the eating of a lamb, which had been sacrificed, in remembrance of the lambs of the original Passover, whose blood had been smeared on the doorposts of … Read moreWednesday, April 5, 2023

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, today’s Gospel is from John’s account of the Last Supper, where Jesus acknowledges Judas as his betrayer and tells him to get on with it. God’s desires have been, from the beginning, opposed. Consistently, human beings have preferred the isolation of sin to the festivity of the sacred meal. Theologians have … Read moreTuesday, April 4, 2023

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, in today’s Gospel, Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus’ feet with perfumed oil, preparing him for burial. This gesture—wasting something as expensive as an entire jar of perfume—is sniffed at by Judas, who complains that, at the very least, the nard could have been sold and the money given to the poor. … Read moreMonday, April 3, 2023