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, the church gives us this

week one of the most extraordinary spiritual stories in the Gospels, the narrative of the

rich young man. To me, this story ranks alongside the prodigal sun parable, the sermon of the mount,

maybe a few others, as one of the truly great summaries of the spiritual life. So I think it

behooves us all to pay very close attention to this great story. It has to do with a young man.

He's never called the young man by the way. We just know it from the description. It says a man

ran up to Jesus. He gives the impression of being someone full of energy, full of idealism,

full of enthusiasm, typical of a young man. And like a lot of young people, especially young man,

I would say, he's looking for a mentor. He's looking for a spiritual director, someone who will

initiate him into the ways of the spirit. And so he says, falling out the knees of Jesus, he says,

good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? That is a good question. The young man has

not only energy and enthusiasm, he's got the right spiritual instinct. He's not asking a

business leader how to succeed in business. He's not asking an elder married man how to succeed

in marriage as important as those things are. Instead, he's asking the most serious possible question.

How do I enter into that life that God wants me to live? Because see, eternal life begins even

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