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. Friends, how wonderful that all three

of our readings this weekend look forward. All are about fresh beginnings, about not

becoming imprisoned in our past. His remark of Martin Luther's, I've always liked, Luther said

that classical philosophies, the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle and so on, is concerned

with the being of things, substance and existence, what are things? But biblical religion, he said,

is much more interested in the future of things, of what things will be, what they will become

under God's influence. We have a God who makes all things new and in that we find hope. Look at

our first reading for this weekend, taken from the 43rd chapter of Isaiah. It was written at the

time of the return of the Israelite exiles from their captivity and Babylon. This was, as I've

often said, the worst trauma in Jewish history. And it was blamed by the prophets and seers and

seers, quite rightly, on their sin. Because of the sin of the people, Jerusalem was destroyed, the

temple burned down, the people carried off into exile. It was as though Yahweh had abandoned his

people. And they read that, they read that as an answer to their sin. Now, now, through the

administrations of Cyrus, the king of Persia, who had conquered the Babylonians, God is doing

something new. Listen out to the prophet. Remember not the events of the past. Things of long ago

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