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, that's the greeting of the

risen Christ. He offered peace to his disciples. And so it's an appropriate greeting for today,

this great Easter Sunday. When I was preparing this humbling, I took a look at our first reading.

I've never preached on it before. But I realized this is the great Easter humbling. What we have

in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles is St. Peter's speech on Pentecost morning.

He's just been filled with the Holy Spirit, his mind and heart on Fire, and he gets up in Jerusalem.

All the pilgrims are gathered there for the feast. And he gives the first great Christian sermon.

Summing up what it means to believe in Jesus Christ risen from the dead. So I thought,

why am I wasting my time writing my own humbly? I should just comment here on what St. Peter says.

I want you to do this in your imagination. Imagine that you're there on this Pentecost morning.

It's a festival in Jerusalem. And you have to see this odd figure get up. And he begins to speak

in a provincial accent. He's from Galilee. Bracket, if you will, that he's St. Peter. Bracket,

if you will, he's talking about Jesus Christ. Just think, here's this man now laying out something to

me. What I want you to see is how startling it is, how uncanny, how strange this message is.

This is the Karigma. This is the basic proclamation of the Christian faith. Pretend you're hearing it

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