This is Cardinal Francis George. 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. 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, how wonderful. The church returns us so regularly to John's account of the wedding

feast at Cana. Again and again throughout the liturgical year, we come back to this story.

There's so much spiritual power packed into this short, elegantly told narrative.

John tells us first there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. Now, as you know, weddings are a

consistent biblical symbol for the mystical union between God and His people. Take a good

long look at the song of songs to see the fullest expression of this metaphor. You also find it

though in the book of the prophet Isaiah. Look at our first reading for today. As a young man

Mary's a virgin, your builder shall marry you. As a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, social

your God rejoices in you. That's beautiful stuff in them. Your builder. I mean, gods are

builder, gods are maker, creator. You don't think of the creator and creature having this

marital relationship. Maybe a master slave relationship or a kind of a survival relationship.

But how wonderful in Isaiah's prophetic imagination that your builder shall marry you. There's this

wonderful sense of intimacy, even equality, not by nature, but a kind of equality by grace

that by God's condescension we share in this intimacy with him. And then wonderful, I think,

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