Mk 12:28-34 (Friday's Gospel)
28 One of the scribes, when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them, asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?"
29 Jesus replied, "The first is this: 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!
30 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.'
31 The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
32 The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, 'He is One and there is no other than he.'
33 And 'to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself' is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
34 And when Jesus saw that (he) answered with understanding, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
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I understand "love your neighbor as yourself," but have a hard time wrapping my mind around what it truly means to "Love your God with all your heart, all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength."
All my heart and soul? How do I go about controlling my soul? How do I make my soul to do something?
All my mind? It's too filled up with Nebraska football minutae (or for the rest of you hoosiers, Mizzou and Cardinals junk), my favorite songs, TV shows, my busy life, and dozens of other things. How do I go about taking control of all of that, and bending it towards God? I can't get through a decade of the rosary without my mind wandering somewhere. Same with a mass. Seriously, how do I do that?
How do we get to the kind of love that Christ is talking about here? I think ultimately you have to go to the Father for help on this one. This is one of those things that I want to be able to do, but I have placed too many barriers between myself and God to truly love him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. I have to pray for God's help to take these barriers down, so that someday I can reach this point.
