Word on Fire is brought to you by Catholic Cemetery's, serving the Chicago area since 1837, and FSP dedicated to food service excellence.

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, so that we might speak with love about the One who is love.

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

Peace be with you.

Friends, every third year in the liturgical cycle, we take a little break from the reading of Mark, and we read from the Gospel of John.

More specifically, from the sixth chapter of John, the famous Bread of Life discourse.

The Church does this because the sixth chapter of John is John's reflection on the meaning of the Eucharist, this greatest gift that Jesus gave the Church.

In John's Gospel, there's no, to use the technical term, institution narrative, meaning no narrative of the cup and the bread at the last supper.

We have the washing of the feet, then we have a long discourse from Jesus.

So you wonder, where is the Eucharist in John? It's right here in the sixth chapter.

So what I'm going to do is, for the next several weeks, use this as an occasion to talk about the mystery of the Eucharist.

It's theological and spiritual implications.

John 6 begins with our Gospel for today.

It begins with his version of the feeding of the 5,000.

You know, Christians, this must have impressed the first believers enormously because this miracle, the feeding of the 5,000, is the only one that's found in all four Gospels.

It's obviously captivated the imaginations of artists and thinkers and spiritual writers across the centuries.

And here it stands at the very beginning of this magnificent sixth chapter of John.

Listen now to some of these symbolic details. As I've often told you, no symbol is incidental in John. No detail is accidental.

Listen, Jesus then went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. The Jewish feast of Passover was near.

Both are important, the mountain and the Passover.

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