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 to that we might speak with love about the One who is Love.

The Archdiocese of Chicago through the generosity of Sacred Heart Parish and Winnetka now presents the Word on Fire.

Peace be with you. Friends today is this great feast of the most holy body and blood of Christ, a feast of Corpus Christi.

It always gives us a good opportunity to reflect upon the liturgy, the Eucharist, the Mass, these great realities that stand at the very heart and center of the faith.

You know, I belong to the generation that came of age right after Vatican II, and during that period, late 60s and 70s, a huge stress was placed upon the Mass as a meal.

We talked about the altar usually as a table, and we stressed the gathered community around the table of the Lord having a meal of fellowship with each other and with Christ.

Now, was that language wrong? No, nothing at all wrong with it. All that's a very legitimate way of talking about the Mass.

But I would say this, it was one-sided. It saw it only from one angle, one perspective, and it tended to bracket something of enormous importance, namely that the Mass is more than just a fellowship meal.

It is also a sacrifice, and that piece of furniture at the very center of the church is more than a table.

It's also an altar on which a sacrifice is performed. But you know, my generation just didn't hear that language very much.

And as a result, we've now passed on, I think, a certain ignorance about the Mass to another generation.

I would submit, if you said to most Catholics under the age of, let's say, 50, is the mass of sacrifice, my guess is a lot of them wouldn't even know what that language is about.

Well, look at our readings for today, for this feast. They are all about sacrifice.

I think I told you before that in the minds of ancient peoples, certainly in the minds of the authors of the Bible.

This reality of sacrifice was paramount. Sacrifice was everywhere in the religious practice of the ancient world, and clearly present in the Bible.

I want you to see something. In the Old Testament, we often see a close association between sacrifice and covenant.

God, we hear, makes a series of covenants with his people, solemn agreements. I will be your God, you will be my people.

And in every case, these covenants are sealed by a sacrifice, by a blood sacrifice. Now, for example, the first great covenant is the one made with Noah.

After the flood, God puts that great rainbow in the sky, and then he says, I make an agreement, a covenant with you.

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