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 is the great feast of Pentecost, one of the greatest feasts in the Church Year, this feast of the Holy Spirit.

What I want to do today is reflect on the problem of the one and the many.

I say, well, that's very abstract, and it's true that it is an ancient philosophical problem.

You'll find it in Plato and Aristotle, everybody else.

But the one and the many is also a spiritual and psychological issue of great importance.

The one unity togetherness is something we all want.

We all crave it, unity that brings us together.

We're all about the same task, the same business.

We're part of something bigger than ourselves. We love unity. It's a great thing.

But in our sin, unity tends to become oppressive.

It becomes monolithic.

It tends to eliminate diversity in a way that we find very uncomfortable.

At the end of the day, the one becomes a problem.

And so, we tend to oscillate toward the many.

And, many is a good thing.

Diversity, pluralism, each one doing his own thing, respecting the good of the other.

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