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, what we have today in our

gospel is a tale of sin and grace. We see very clearly what both states look like, and

so it behooves us to attend very carefully to the dynamics of this narrative. We hear

that Jesus has been invited to the home of a Pharisee. As we know, the Pharisees were

members of a sect within Judaism that was hyper-concerned with ritual purity and the strict

following of the law. Think of religious enforcers within any religious tradition. Perhaps

the Taliban would come to mind today. That's maybe a little too harsh to compare the Pharisees

to them, but at least you get the idea. People who were sort of enforcers of religious orthodoxy

and religious practice among the people. Now, Jesus' message has been one of repentance.

Changing the mind in the heart. Metanoia, I've talked about that before, going beyond the mind

that you have. That was the beginning of Jesus' message, repent. But the Pharisees didn't

see much need for repentance on their own part. They were very interested in noticing the

sins of others. Therefore, we shouldn't be surprised that sparks would fly at a meeting

of Jesus and a Pharisee. How come we invited Jesus to his home? Well, likely not to listen

to him and abide by his teaching, which is more likely to watch him, to catch him in his

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