Word on Fire is brought to you by Catholic cemeteries, serving the Chicago area since 1837.

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 Parish and Winnicka now presents the Word on Fire.

Peace be with you.

Friends, today we conclude our reading of the sixth chapter of John's Gospel, this wonderful discourse on the Eucharist.

Last week, in some ways, the discourse of Jesus came to its high point, as he lays out unambiguously this teaching on his real presence.

Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life within you. My flesh is real food. My blood is real drink.

What follows from this?

A mass exodus. We imagine a large crowd listening to Jesus. They've been intrigued by his miracles, especially the multiplication of the loaves.

And he lays out this teaching.

Are they taken in? Convinced? Excited? I'm a contrary. Most of them leave.

The Eucharist has been from the earliest times to the present day, a great source of division.

That's sad? Yeah. Should it be that way? No, of course not. The Eucharist ought to be what unites us.

But it's just the case that from the beginning up and down the centuries, the Eucharist has divided us.

What I mean is this teaching becomes a watershed. Some say yes. Some say no.

As the crowds leave him, Jesus says to his disciples, and it's one of the most poignant scenes, I think, in the New Testament.

He says, do you also want to leave? What a question. You get the sense that the whole church, the whole Christian project, is hanging in the balance.

That if they leave, it's over. If they leave, then everyone's left.

There's a wonderful parallel here between this passage in John and those passages in the synoptic gospels.

When Jesus turns to his disciples and says, who do you say that I am?

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