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 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 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, I fully realize that an awful lot of people will probably find our first reading for today offensive.

We hear an account of the marauding Israelites conquering the Amalakites and utterly destroying them, mowing them down with the edge of the sword.

In fact, that's the last line we hear before the reader says the Word of the Lord.

Well, we now, at the beginning of the 21st century, we've seen the awful accesses of the last century, with its blitzkrieging wars, genocides and massacres.

In fact, the beginning of this century, we saw September 11th.

We've become rightly enough protective of the rights of underdogs and the oppressed.

We've become appropriately enough wary of the self-justifying rationales of military conquerors.

So what do we do with a text like this one?

And to be fair, this is by no means an isolated text in the Bible.

In fact, go through the book of Joshua sometime, and you'll see this kind of thing over and again.

God often giving the command to put the ban on cities that means to kill everyone in them, including women, children and animals.

Okay, what do we do with these disturbing texts?

Well, first of all, we have to realize the story of ancient Israel, even while remaining the story of one people among many, is also the story of God's dealing with his people.

We're meant to see the events that mark the life of Israel as iconic of God's relationship to the human race.

Therefore, we should read them not simply in a straightforward historical way, but we should read these texts in a spiritual and symbolic way.

One more clue.

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