Good morning, this is Cardinal Francis George, and I invite you to join me for the next few minutes to reflect with Father Robert Baron on the Word of God, which is the Word on Fire.

Father Baron will challenge 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, who we might speak with love about the one who is love.

The Archdiocese of Chicago through the generosity of Sacred Heart Parishing Winetka now presents the Word on Fire.

Peace be with you. Friends, last week on the Feast of Corpus Christi, we talked about what it means to be the Church, the Living Body of Christ.

What I want to do today is to continue really with this theme of Body of Christ, of Eucharist, but especially with a stress on what the Church calls the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

You know, this has long been a controversial issue up and down the centuries. What it means to say Christ is really truly present in the Eucharist, but in very recent days become literally a headline issue because the American bishops have addressed this problem.

There was a survey, you know, a couple of years ago of Catholics that asked their views on various things, and they asked about the Eucharist.

And the survey at least gave the impression that a lot of Catholics don't believe in the real presence. They have a more symbolic understanding of the Eucharist.

So the American bishops, I think, want to address this problem and to clarify some of this teaching.

What I want to do is just spend, you know, these 15 minutes saying a few basic things about our Eucharistic faith.

First of all, this problem of real presence. Somebody will say, well, aren't all presences real? What's the significance of designating one as a real as opposed to more mitigated forms of presence?

Well, I think in our ordinary experience, we know that there are varying degrees or intensity of presence.

You know, suppose somebody told you, I heard Father Barron say, thus and so, well, I'd be present to you through that person's report, but in a very distant sort of way.

Now suppose you're hearing my words as I speak them. When I, when you hear them, I will have, I said them four days earlier, and you're hearing a recording of my voice.

But I'm much more vividly present to you than I was simply in that person's report.

Now consider I'm in your living room and I'm sitting in front of you and I'm talking to you. Well, now I'm present to you in a perfectly vivid and real and personal way.

So there are even an ordinary experience varying degrees of presence.

But church says that Jesus is present to us also according to varying modes of intensity.

So for example, with the scripture we can say, wherever two or three are gathered, they're a my and their midst, whenever two or three Christians get together in prayer or study, there's Jesus with them.

Sure, that's a presence of the Lord. Whenever the Eucharistic community comes together, we say Christ is present among the people.

We say Christ is present in the presider, the celebrant at the Eucharist. Whenever the scripture is read, Jesus who is the Word of God is present, yes indeed.

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