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. Well friends, another Sunday of

Lent, another Joe Hannaine masterpiece. This time is the story of the raising of Lazarus.

I mentioned last week how these magnificent stories from John will appeal, especially

to poetically-minded people. People plugged into the literary forms because John is

such a genius, a spiritual genius, but also a literary genius. And you see it now in these

wonderful stories of the woman at the well, Nicodemus, the manborn blind, and now the

raising of Lazarus. Again, the details always matter with John. We hear of a certain man

named Lazarus, which means God helps. He's lying ill in the town of Bethany, which means

the house of the afflicted. We're meant to see something here, of course. This is a story

about all of us who are in any way afflicted and seeking the help of God. That means of

course every one of us. You see how we all live in Bethany and we all live in the house

of the afflicted, whether it's the physical afflictions, mental, spiritual, psychological,

whatever they are, we all live in Bethany. And we're all Lazarus because we're all seeking

the help of God. So right away, John's telling us it's a story, yes, about this historical

figure Lazarus, but a story about every one listening to him. Lazarus we hear now is the

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