Heart, Mind, Soul, Strength

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032825.cfm

Photo by Aziz Acharki on Unsplash

Jesus makes it simple, right? Two commandments. Just start with those, everything else falls in line. Just love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strength - that's all. Oh, and love your neighbor as much as you do yourself.

Piece of cake, right? It is so easy for us to quickly gloss over these words and say "yeah I know that." But have we ever really thought about what is being asked of us here? If we take even a few moments to unpack these, we are left with a difficult decision: Are we really up to the challenge? Let's consider these for a moment, then I will turn it over to you to ponder.

All your heart? What is your heart, really? It certainly is the organ the pumps blood to the rest of your body, keeping it lively, and feeding it. It is also a perhaps a part of our brain. The seat of our emotions and desires; the place where courage and compassion live. Do we love God with this part of us? Is He the object of our desires and emotions? Do we put our courage and compassion at His service? Are we stirred to action and interaction for the things that are of God? Or is it only for our human passions, or sports teams?

All your mind? Our intellect is something that feeds the core of what makes us human. Our ability to assemble, imagine, and consider thousands of factors makes us much more than just the fanciest animal at the zoo. Before the era of terabytes of storage, I remember having to comb through the hard drive of my computer, seeing how much storage was dedicated to certain programs, or files that I had stored. If we could do such a thing with our mind, how much would we find is allocated to God and His purposes? I don't want to assume things, but I'm guessing it would be less than 'All of it'.

All your soul? While the mind informs our humanity, the soul is our humanity. It is the essence of what separates us from all other life: the ability to choose in a way that is not only informed by our physical, animal needs. We can love by choosing to put ourselves at the service of others. This part of us is intrinsically connected with its divine origin and longs for the eternal. Do we allow ourselves this, or do we make our soul, the slave of our life here on earth, toiling away to decide what's the best car to buy, or how can we become more popular or accepted? Do we allow our soul to ponder God, and be drawn back to His service and a longing for things eternal?

All your strength? Where do you exert your strength? Is it in the physical spheres of our daily work or the gym? These can certainly be tied to God's purposes, if we intentional about that. When did we last truly exert our strength, physically, for the Lord? There is also mental strength, but if we are loving God with all our mind, I'll assume that is covered there. How much of the physical effort that we expend each day is directed toward the love of God? Maybe the second commandment helps, when we consider that love of neighbor is love of God. Feel free to include all of those efforts.

I want to apologize. As I went through this mental exercise, I was left feeling disappointed at how far away from 'all my heart, all my mind, all my soul and all my strength' I was. I have now laid this on you as well. Sorry. We can begin to make progress though. Bump up your prayer time by just 5 minutes. Listen to a Bishop Barron podcast instead of sports in the car, do an extra kind act for someone, ponder heaven for a few minutes. Then - make a note of how you feel at the end of these things - God rewards us. He doesn't tell us to love Him because He needs to be loved more, He tells us this because it is good for us - and feels that way.