This is Cardinal Francis George. 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. 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, today's Gospel gives us the

wonderful and challenging parable of the talents. We know the contours of the story well. The man

goes on a journey, but before leaving, he entrusts his money to three of his servants. To

when he gives five talents, to a second, two, and to a third, one, each one according to his

ability. Now, at first point to note here, a talent was a good deal of money in the ancient

world. So even the servant who's received only one talent has got a fair amount of money. This

is not a trivial sum we're dealing with. Then, the story goes on, that man went away. The first

servant, traded with the five talents, risking them on the open market. Don't we know today, by

the way, what a danger that is. The second does the same, and both receive a rich return on their

investment, doubling their money. Third man, cautious, he buries his talent, sure to return it to

his master upon his return. When the owner returns, he praises the first two servants and gives them

greater responsibility. The third man, he upgrades. You wicked, lazy servant. Okay, we know that story

well. Jesus loved to use examples drawn from rural life, a lot of examples of those, but he was also

partial to images taken from the world of business. And I think maybe for us, especially in the

Western world, those might be even more telling their closer to our own experience. He especially

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