This is Cardinal Francis George. I invite you to join me for the next two minutes to reflect

with Father Robert Barron on the Word of God, which is the Word on Fire. Word on Fire Catholic

Ministries is a non-profit ministry at the forefront of Catholic evangelization, using

new media to spread the faith and every continent. Father Barron challenges us to open our hearts

to the Word on Fire, which is God's Word of Love for each of us. If our hearts are open,

the Lord can change and transform us so that we might speak with love about the one who

is love. The global benefactors of Word on Fire with the support of the Archdiocese of

Chicago now present Word on Fire. Peace be with you. Francis weekend we continue our

meditation on the most extraordinary religious sermon ever uttered. The summation of Jesus

teaching and preaching, the great sermon on the mount. I can recommend, as we make our

way through this sermon, just go back now to those fifth, sixth and seventh chapters of Matthew's

gospel and meditate on this sermon. Take the opportunity to read it in its entirety. What we're

getting there is a summary of what Jesus typically taught. As he made his way around the Holy

Land 2,000 years ago, this is probably pretty typical of what he taught. And so here's the Word of

God speaking to us this word. It behooves us to pay very careful attention to it. Our passage

for this weekend is I would say the rhetorical high point of this sermon. And one of the most

challenging pieces of religious teaching on offer anywhere in the spiritual world.

Continuing his radicalization of the old teaching, as I mentioned that last week, Jesus doesn't

repudiate the old teaching of the prophets, but he radicalizes it. He gets to the roots of it.

He intensifies it. So today he says, you've heard that it was said in I, for an eye, in a tooth

for a tooth, but I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. Now here's the first observation

to make. The old teaching, eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, was a very good thing indeed.

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