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 who we might speak with love about the one who is love.

The Archdiocese of Chicago, through the generosity of Sacred Heart Parish and Winetka, now presents the Word on fire.

Peace be with you.

Friends, our readings for this fifth Sunday of Easter are all directly or indirectly about the priesthood.

Now, don't get inattentive thinking, well, I'm not a priest, so this has little to do with me.

See, because in the classical theology of the Church, reiterated strongly in Vatican II, every baptized person is a priest.

Or Dane Priest, the ministerial priesthood, has his own special character, but all of us by baptism are priests.

Well, who's a priest? What's a priest do in this general sense? A priest is a mediator between God and human beings.

Someone who offers a sacrifice of praise to God and thereby links divinity and humanity.

A priest is a kind of pontifex, that means bridge builder. The Pope and Rome, of course, is the pontifex Maximus.

He's the greatest of the bridge builders, but all of us baptized priests, our bridge builders, between divinity and humanity.

Oh, and the Old Testament gives us a very rich background for understanding priesthood.

Lots of priests in the Old Testament, Noah, Abraham, Moses, come readily to mind, all people who engaged in sacrifice.

But the most prominent priest is Aaron, that founding father of the long line of temple priests, who would, on behalf of Israel, offer sacrifice to Yahweh.

These Jerusalem priests, as the temple developed and unfolded, became very interesting figures, wearing special garments and vestments, presiding at these complex liturgies of the temple.

They and their tendants would offer throughout the day prayers and sacrifices to God, taking animals brought by the people, killing them, burning them as peace offerings or thank offerings,

or a sign of atonement. These priests were essential to the religious life and imagination of ancient Israel.

Be practically impossible for a biblical person to imagine the spiritual life apart from these priests.

Now, Jesus was not a temple priest. He was a rabbi, he was a teacher. But as a pious Jew, he was very much a temple-centric person.

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