Word on Fire is brought to you by Catholic Cemetery, 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 Barron on the Word of God, which is the Word on Fire.

Father Barron 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 so that we might speak with love about the one who is love.

The Archdiocese of Chicago through the generosity of Sacred Heart Parish in Winnettka

now presents the Word on Fire.

Peace me with you.

Friends, the image of God as a shepherd is a classic one in the Bible.

Of course, we all know the wonderful 23rd Psalm.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. In verdant pastures he gives me repose, beside restful waters, he leads me.

We also know from Psalm 76, the Lord shepherds his people by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

We also find this in the book of the prophet Ezekiel.

Evil shepherds have tended the people Israel.

They've been evil because they use the sheep for their own purposes, shepherding themselves.

And then God says through the prophet Ezekiel, I myself will come and shepherd my people

Israel. So up and down the Old Testament, this image is in the mind of Israel. It's against that

background that we listen to Jesus today in this extraordinary gospel from John. Listen,

Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. Read in light of what we've just considered, that's as

strong a statement of Jesus' divinity as the word was made flesh and

dwelt among us. What runs right through the Gospels, this affirmation that Jesus is

acting and speaking in the very person of God. We see it here. What God promised, he's the good

...