Word on Fire is brought to you by Catholic cemeteries, 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 Barron on the Word of God, which is the Word on Fire.

Father Barron 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, clearly 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, and happy Easter.

Friends today, Easter Sunday, is the day that makes all the difference.

Easter is the event around which everything else in Christianity revolves.

It is the center which holds it all together, that which conditions, influences, effects, determines, defines everything we're about, everything we do.

All four gospels, all the epistles of Paul and John, the theologies of Christusdom and Jerome and Augustine and Origen, the poetry of Dante, Chart Cathedral, the summa of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Sistine Chapel, ceiling, the sermons of Newman, all of Christian culture.

All of it centers around the event of Easter, of Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.

Paul said it as clearly and succinctly as you could want.

If Christ has not been raised, our faith is in vain.

If Christ has not been raised, we might be saying and doing all kinds of interesting and attractive things, but finally it's all in vain.

Everything centers around Jesus, risen from the dead.

Everything else is commentary.

In a word, the resurrection is the gospel. It is the good news.

When the first Christians, when Peter and Paul and John announced this message, they didn't talk primarily about Jesus' teaching.

That came later. They didn't talk primarily about Jesus' deeds, miracles.

That came later. What they talked about was Jesus risen from the dead. That was the God's spell, the good news, the gospel.

That's what Christians preach year in, year out, every generation. That's what today is about.

What do we mean precisely when we say Jesus is risen from the dead?

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