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 today is the great

solemnity of Corpus Christi. We celebrate the body and the blood of Christ. It seems to

me we will never understand the meaning of this great feast until we grasp the importance

of blood sacrifice for ancient Israel. It's been said that the feature of the ancient

world that would most surprise and impress modern people if suddenly we were transported

back in a time machine would be the prevalence of this practice. Now though it's very

foreign to us, the idea of blood sacrifice is actually pretty straight forward, which

is one reason why you find it all over the world. A person would take an aspect of God's

creation, a bowl or a dove or a sheep, and would offer it back to God. Now no one at

least in the Israelite world thought that God needed it. How could the creator of all

things possibly need something from creation? But rather the sacrifice or did it as a

sign of one's thanksgiving for the whole of creation? Or perhaps as a sign of one's

repentance. In other words, the sacrifice benefited the sacrifice or not God. And this

sacrificial instinct is quite deep in us, even to this day, which is why we still want

to do something for God in order to express our thanksgiving or our sorrow. I mean,

...