With all your mind!

Mark 12:28-34

One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD. 30 And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ 31 The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” 32 The teacher of religious law replied, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other. 33 And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.” 34 Realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Food for the mind!

As we all know, there too many rules and regulations and commandments in our faith community, so much so that sometimes you wonder which is the most important. This was the question put to Jesus: “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Jesus replied, "You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind." These are the words Jesus said in reply to the question posted by a teacher of religion. I want and am going to base our reflection today solely on this one: WITH ALL YOUR MIND!

Why are we exhorted to love with all our mind? As you know, I our mind plays a fundamental role in our life, including spiritual life. A human being is a unity of two distinct realities-body and soul.' More specifically, I am my soul and I have a body. The soul (which is the same thing as the self or the I) is that immaterial, invisible thing that makes me a conscious, living human being. The soul is who I am. I go where my soul goes. If God took my soul and put it into your body and placed your soul into my body, we would have different bodies. If my soul leaves my body, I leave my body because I am my soul.

The mind is that faculty of the soul that contains thoughts and beliefs; it is with my mind that I think, and my mind contains my beliefs. The greatest commandment in the Bible is to love God. And Jesus says to do this not only with our heart and soul but also with our mind. The major activity of the mind is “thinking.” So to love God with the mind is to love him in the way we use our mind to think. No wonder that St. Paul exhorts us: "Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise." Let us do our best by filling our minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious; the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. (Phil 4:8).

Please notice that Jesus says ALL your mind! This means using our thinking to the full engagement of the mind: "Our thinking should be wholly engaged". Loving God is an experience of cherishing, delighting, admiring, and valuing. It’s the sort of thing Paul was expressing for Jesus when he said, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil. 3:8).

WHY ALL THIS THEORY?

Just to say that our FOOD FOR THOUGHT is exactly that: food for our mind! 

Realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” The more and better you use your mind the closer you are to the Kingdom of God.