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, ambition to some degree

bedevils all of us. We might characterize ambition as a dysfunctional desire for power

and honor. I might do both those things, power and honor, are finding themselves. God

after all is described as powerful, indeed all powerful. An honor is, as Thomas Aquinas

said, just the flag of virtue. It's simply the indicator we give to show people something

good, something virtuous. But when these two things, power and honor, are sought as means

of a grandizing the ego, then they become corrupt. That's ambition in the negative

sense. Now, it's important, too, to distinguish ambition from magnanimity, great solidness.

If I can put it that way, magna anima means great sol and Latin. So magna nimitas to have

a great soul. That's not ambition. That's something wonderful. Thomas Aquinas, again, defines

magnanimity as a desire to do great things to accomplish great projects. And there's nothing

in the world wrong with that. Make no small plans. I'm a Chicagoan. That's a good Chicago

sort of adage. And I believe in that. Make no small plans. In fact, the virtue of magnanimity

was rather fully exemplified by Thomas himself in the accomplishment of his stunningly long

and complex theological project. I mean, no one would undertake the writing of the summa

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