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, in the course of my work

in apologetics and evangelization, I'm always running up against the problem of religion

and science. In the minds of many people in our culture, religion and science are simply

enemies. They're just mutually exclusive attitudes of the mind. Many skeptics hold that

religion tried from the very beginning to keep science down, and they inevitably cite the

case of Galileo. They'll argue that religion is, at best, a kind of primitive science,

the manner in which ignorant people try to explain the mysterious phenomena around

them. Well, on this reading, religion should just get out of the way of the progressive

march of the sciences. Well, you know, what I want to do on this feast of the epiphany,

this feast of the visit of the Magiag to the Christ child is to address this issue since

it has to do with this relationship, I think, of science and Christ, science and faith.

See, we're not precisely sure what Magoi means. That's the term that Matthew uses. Magoi

from the East came. Some say kings, some say wise men, magicians. One thing we know is

that there was a very well-developed culture of astronomy and stargazing in ancient Babylon,

the civilization to the east of the Hoi land. Most likely, these stargazing Magoi were

...