This is Cardinal Francis George. I invite you to join me for the next few 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 nonprofit 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. Friends, a great story of the man born blind

in the ninth chapter of John's Gospel is, of course, a masterpiece. John was both a

spiritual and literary master and his gifts are on full display in this telling. Like the

wedding feast at Cana, like the woman at the well, like Lazarus, this story is a microcosm of

the spiritual life. And so it behooves us to attend to its rhythms and dynamics very carefully.

The one thing you should never do with stories in John's Gospel is just kind of brush over them and

get the main ideas, the main characters. You're going to miss so much of the spiritual and

psychological richness in them. So here's how the story opens. As Jesus passed by, he saw a man

blind from birth. Now, as you know, in the Bible, blindness is often taken as a symbol for sin.

Because one of the results of the fall is compromised vision or compromised consciousness.

We don't get things. We don't see correctly. You know, very often in the spiritual

tradition, we talk about people, they're physically able to see they see the world, but they don't

get it. They don't see the patterns. And so this man blind from birth is a kind of yadurman

figure. He's an every man figure. He's evocative of all of us, victims of original sin,

and therefore unable to see. Now, who's Jesus? Quite simply, he's the enemy of darkness.

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