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 continue this week with an extraordinary section of Matthew's

gospel. We've been reading from it the last couple of weeks. The chapter is now immediately

proceeding the account of Jesus, passion, and death. Something is really intensifying here

in Matthew. There's an emotional power to these passages. The Lord now is in Jerusalem. He's

addressing the chief priests and elders of the people. We hear that phrase repeated a lot. He's

addressing, in short, the religious establishment. He continues to contrast the kingdom of God,

which he's announcing from the religion that they represent. Now, don't overdraw this distinction,

but also don't underdraw it. There's always a danger within any religious system that the focus

becomes so exclusively on the sort of details and traditions and practices of the religion that the

heart of it's forgotten. And Jesus is always coming back to this point. Everything we do in a

given religion, including our own, is meant to open us up to divine friendship. I mean, that's what

it's finally about. And if you're so focused in a sort of fussy way, or even in aggressive way,

on the details without getting the heart, well, then, you know, what's the point? So that's, I

think, what these stories are about, these contrasts. Well, in this context, he proposes this

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