Word on Fire is brought to you by Catholic cemeteries, serving the Chicago area since 1837.

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 Parish and Winetka, now presents the Word on Fire.

Peace be with you.

Friends, our Gospel for today is derived from the 15th chapter of the Gospel of John, and it gives us one of the most striking images in the New Testament.

Jesus is speaking to His disciples, and He says,

I am the true vine, and you are the branches.

My Father is the vine grower.

Remain in me as I remain in you.

Now, I mentioned last week, it is very tempting and very easy to imagine Jesus as simply an inspiring moral example.

As a hero from the distant past, someone that we admire across the centuries.

Though modernity wants us to believe that, that is not Christianity.

Listen, we are not so much in an imitative relationship with Jesus as a participative one.

We are organically related to Him.

We live in Him, and He lives in us.

We are members of His mystical body.

To turn Him simply into a distant moral ideal is to got Christianity, is to take the very life out of it.

As a branch comes forth from a vine, deriving its life, sustenance, and purpose from the vine.

So we come forth from Christ.

Deriving whatever we have of a spiritual life, sustenance, purpose from Him.

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