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 Winnetka now presents the Word on Fire.

Peace be with you. Friends, I want to talk to you today about families.

You're a lot of politician and sometimes even religious people today talking about family values.

I think the Bible certainly believes in family values, but I have the suspicion that what politicians and public people today mean by it and what the Bible means by it are often very different things.

Let's look first at some choice things that Jesus said about families, and they might be a little shocking to us, especially when we hear them all at once.

Remember in the Gospels, the man says to him, Lord, I'll be your follower, but let me first go home and bury my father.

Seems like a reasonable request. What does Jesus say? Let the dead bury their dead.

Remember another time a follower says to him, Lord, I'll be your disciple, but first let me go and settle things with my people.

Let me settle my affairs with my family. Jesus replies, no one that sets his hand in the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

How about the woman that cried out to him? How blessed are the breasts that nursed you in the womb that bore you?

Jesus says, blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.

Then there's the most devastating one.

Jesus says, you think I've come for peace? I've come for the sword, and with this sword I will divide families, father against son, son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother.

Well, what gives with this? What's going on with this language that seems so out of step with what we take to be family values?

Well, I think what's going on is a complete reconfiguration of what we should mean by family and the values of family.

I think what Jesus is implying is this. There's one great thing that matters. What matters is doing God's mission.

Living the life God wants us to lead. If anything gets in the way of that, even the most beautiful and precious things, even the family, if they get in the way of that, there are problems.

And he's come to divide. Let me try to illustrate it with a couple of stories from the scripture that I think give us a very good indication of this biblical vision.

The first one is that wonderful story. You can read it in the first book of Samuel. It's a story of Hannah. She's the mother of the prophet Samuel. Hannah was childless.

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