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, we enter now into the

Easter season. We meditate upon these wonderful stories from the Gospels. They're about

the ways that the risen Christ interacts with his church. Yes, two thousand years ago,

but also today, these are all our stories. It's very important that we move into the dynamics

of these great accounts. The one today is from the Gospel of John. It is we hear the

evening of that first day of the week. It's Resurrection Day. It's the day of the new creation.

John's Gospel harkens back often to the beginning of the book of Genesis. In the beginning

was the Word, John says, well, that echoes the bearish sheet, the in the beginning with

which the Bible begins. Well, here now he's saying on this first day, it's a day of a new

creation. Resurrection day. But the disciples haven't yet grasped the meaning of this novelty

because they're still living in fear. It says the doors were locked for fear of the Jews.

Now, a pretty understandable fear. Jesus, their leader has just been crucified. The most

frightening death someone could die. Of course, they were afraid. The same fate might be

awaiting them. Well, the disciples locked away in the upper room, our revocative of all of us

down to the ages, afraid, isolated, defensive, conditioned at every turn by the fear of death.

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