Be and do good!

Luke 17:7-10

“When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, does his master say, ‘Come in and eat with me’? 8 No, he says, ‘Prepare my meal, put on your apron, and serve me while I eat. Then you can eat later.’ 9 And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not. 10 In the same way, when you obey me you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.’”

Food for thought!

Jesus is teaching us something we so often forget: we can never put God in our debt and can never have any claim on Him. When we have done our best, we have done only our duty; and a man who has done his duty has done only what, in any event, he is expected to do. What this means is that, God made us not only good but also capable of doing good; being and doing good is human. And whenever we do or be good, we are only doing what we were made to do and be; we only fulfill our duty. In other words, when we have done our best, we have done only our duty. God made each one of us the best he could make. We are inherently good, very good: "Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! (Gen. 1:31)

This is why God told Cain, when this man was failing in his duty to do and be good to his brother Abel: "If you do well, won't you be accepted? And if you don't do well, sin is lying in wait for you, ready to pounce; it's out to get you, you've got to master it." (Gen. 4:7). God was only reminding Cain that he can master sin, because was made to master sin and do well. 

This is the reason why, a successful life is the life that ends well; a failed life is the life that fails at doing good. When we do good, we only do what God expects us to do. For this reason, when and if we say, I cannot change, or that, I cannot do better, or that, I cannot stop doing evil, we only insult God, because He made us good and not evil. And if and when we do or be good, we don't deserve a credit as such, because we have simply done our duty. Our duty is to obey the Lord, and do what he tells us to do. To him be praise and glory and honour, both now and forever.

The power of faith!

Luke 17:1-6

1 Jesus said to His disciples, Temptations (snares, traps set to entice to sin) are sure to come, but woe to him by or through whom they come! 2 It would be more profitable for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were hurled into the sea than that he should cause to sin or be a snare to one of these little ones [ lowly in rank or influence]. 3 Pay attention and always be on your guard [looking out for one another]. If your brother sins (misses the mark), solemnly tell him so and reprove him, and if he repents (feels sorry for having sinned), forgive him. 4 And even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and turns to you seven times and says, I repent [I am sorry], you must forgive him (give up resentment and consider the offense as recalled and annulled). 5 The apostles said to the Lord, Increase our faith (that trust and confidence that spring from our belief in God). 6 And the Lord answered, If you had faith (trust and confidence in God) even [so small] like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, Be pulled up by the roots, and be planted in the sea, and it would obey you.

Food for thought!

Two things: temptations to sin are sure to happen; this world is not heaven; but none of Jesus' disciples should be the cause of others' sinning. What Jesus says is that it is impossible to construct a world with no temptations, no trials, no hardships; there's nothing like a temptation free world, but woe to that man or women who teaches another to sin or who takes away another's innocence. Sinning is bad enough and should be avoided. But teaching others to sin, should doubly be avoided.

A story. An old man was dying. Something was obviously worrying him. At last he said what it was. "When I was a young boy," he said, "I often played at a road junction. Nearby was sign-post indicating the directions from the junction. I remember one day twisting it round in its socket, thus altering the arms and making them point in the wrong direction; and I've been wondering ever since how many travellers I sent on the wrong road."

God will not hold anyone guiltless, who, on the road of life, sends others on the wrong way.

On the contrary, we must always do our best to rescue all those who are going down the wrong path. This is why, if anyone comes to us and asks us to forgive them, don't hesitate to forgive them. When you do so, you save yourself and the person from going on the wrong road. 

Lk 17:5-6 tell us that faith is the greatest force in the world. The saying, "If you had faith (trust and confidence in God) even [so small] like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, Be pulled up by the roots, and be planted in the sea, and it would obey you" means that even that which looks completely impossible becomes possible, if it is approached with faith. 

Many of us have faith but we don't put it to use. Faith is a force. We have only to think of the number of scientific marvels, of the number of surgical operations, of the feats of endurance which today have been achieved and which less than fifty years ago would have been regarded as utterly impossible. If we approach a thing saying, "It can't be done," it will not; if we approach it saying, "It must be done," the chances are that it will. We must always remember that we approach no task alone, but that with us there is God and all his power.

On giving and getting!

Mark 12:41-44

41 Jesus sat down near the collection box in the Temple and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Many rich people put in large amounts. 42 Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins. 43 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. 44 For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.”

Food for thought!

The story has many lessons, for both the rich and the poor, for both men and women, for both giving and getting. First, the gospel says "Jesus sat down near the collection box in the Temple and watched as the crowds dropped in their money." This means what, if not that Jesus cares about our giving? This is evident from the fact that Jesus was observing the people casting their money into the treasury. He was watching them as they gave. How many believe that Jesus still watches the people as they give? That he watches us as pray? That he watches us guve and get? The first lesson is, therefore, that JESUS WATCHES!

The second lesson is that no one is too poor to give, just as no one is too rich to get. No one should say that I am too poor to give. No, you are not. You may not have money, like the widow, but you have the time, the health and may be the wealth. Someone once said, “Those who think they have nothing to give should remember that they can always give themselves, and that they can always render some kind of service even if it be nothing more than a few words of cheer.” The gift of ourself, our time, and energy may often be one of the most important and wonderful things we can give.

The third lesson is that the best gift is not your money or your dollars; the best gift you can give is YOU! The Lord prefers you to your gift. And I am sure your spouse, your friend, your children prefer you to your other gifts. The best gift you can ever give to your spouse is not money, is not material things; it is YOU, your heart, not your wealth. Many of us want love and companionship and forgiveness and understanding, but it is a law of life that we must first be loving and friendly and forgiving and understandind; if the approach is good, the response is good; if it bad, the response is bad. If you shout at people, people will shout at you; if you're rude to others, they'll be rude to you. So the third lesson is that YOU'RE TREATED THE WAY YOU TREAT OTHERS. 

The fourth lesson is that real giving must be sacrificial. The amount of the gift never matters so much as its cost to the giver, not the size of the gift, but the size of the giver; the attitude of the giver is more important than the gift itself. The manner of giving is worth more than the gift.

Real giving has a certain recklessness in it. The woman might have kept one coin. It would not have been much but it would have been something, yet she gave everything she had. There is a great symbolic truth here. It is our tragedy that there is so often some part of our lives, some part of our activities, some part of ourselves which we do not give to Christ. Somehow there is nearly always something we hold back. We rarely make the final sacrifice and the final surrender.

It is a strange and lovely thing that the person whom the New Testament and Jesus hand down to history as a pattern and example of generosity was a person who gave a gift of, not a million dollars, but half a penny. We may feel that we have not much in the way of material gifts or personal gifts to give to Christ, but, if we put all that we have and are at his disposal, he can do things with it and with us that are beyond our imaginings.

The law of giving and receiving also asks us to be good receivers. As we give of ourselves, our time and resources, our positive attitudes and loving thoughts and actions, it is also important to be able to receive the gifts of others in a graceful way. Everyone truly loves to give, and there are times when we are being of service by graciously receiving what another would give us—when we find a way to say, “Thank you, I accept your thoughtful gift.”

President John F. Kennedy advised Americans, ”Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” And Viktor Frankl nored, "Ask not what you can expect from life; ask what life expects from you."

Give today to get tomorrow!

Luke 16:9-15

Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home. 10 “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. 11 And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? 12 And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own? 13 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” 14 The Pharisees, who dearly loved their money, heard all this and scoffed at him. 15 Then he said to them, “You like to appear righteous in public, but God knows your hearts. What this world honors is detestable in the sight of God.

Food for thought!

Today's gospel reading follows Luke 16:8, inwhere Jesus states that the sons of this world are wiser in their generation than the sons of light. He was comenting on the story of dishonety manager. What Jesus is saying is that, if only the Christian was as eager and ingenious in his attempt to attain goodness as the man of the world is in his attempt to attain money and comfort, he would be a much better man. If only we would give as much attention to the things which concern our souls as we do to the things which concern our profession and business, we would be much better people. Over and over again we do expend twenty times the amount of time and money and effort on pleasure, hobby, garden, sport as we do on our soul. Our Christianity will begin to be real and effective only when we spend as much time and effort on it as we do on our worldly activities.

In Lk.16:9 the lesson is that material possessions should be used to cement the friendships wherein the real and permanent value of life lies. The rich help the poor in this world, but the poor help the rich in the world to come; charity given to poor people stands to our credit in the world to come; our true wealth does consist not in what we keep, but in what we give away. Let us use our wealth not selfishly but to make life easier, not only for himself, but for others too. Possessions are not in themselves a sin, but they are a great responsibility, and the person who uses them to help others has gone far to discharge that responsibility.

In Lk.16v10-11 the lesson is that a man's way of fulfilling a small task is the best proof of his fitness or unfitness to be entrusted with a bigger task. That is clearly true of earthly things. No man will be advanced to higher office until he has given proof of his honesty and ability in a smaller position. But Jesus extends the principle to eternity. He says, "Upon earth you are in charge of things which are not really yours. You cannot take them with you when you die. They are only lent to you. You are only a steward over them. They cannot, in the nature of things, be permanently yours. On the other hand, in heaven you will get what is really and eternally yours. And what you get in heaven depends on how you use the things of earth. What you will be given as your very own will depend on how you use the things of which you are only steward."

Angry Jesus!

John 2:13-22

13 It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. 14 In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. 15 Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. 16 Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!” 17 Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume me.” 18 But the Jewish leaders demanded, “What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.” 19 “All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 “What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?” 21 But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.

Food for thought!

Jesus' anger is a terrifying thing; the picture of Jesus with the whip is an awe-inspiring sight. We must see what moved Jesus to this white-hot anger in the Temple Courts. What enraged Jesus was turning the holy place into a marketplace. There were at least two reasons why Jesus acted as he did, and why anger was in his heart.

(i) He acted as he did because God's house was being desecrated. In the Temple there was worship without reverence. Reverence is an instinctive thing. Worship without reverence can be a terrible thing. It may be worship which is formalized and pushed through anyhow; the most dignified prayers on earth can be read like a passage from an auctioneer's catalogue. It may be worship which does not realize the holiness of God; it may be worship in which priest or congregation are completely unprepared; it may be the use of the house of God for purposes and in a way where reverence and the true function of God's house are forgotten. In that court of God's house at Jerusalem there would be arguments about prices, disputes about coins that were worn and thin, the clatter of the market place. That particular form of irreverence may not be common now, but there are other ways of offering an irreverent worship to God.

(ii) There is still another reason why Jesus acted as he did. The Temple traders were making praying impossible. The lowing of the oxen, the bleating of the sheep, the cooing of the doves, the shouts of the hucksters, the rattle of the coins, the voices raised in bargaining disputes--all these combined to make the Temple a place where no man could worship. Jesus was moved to the depths of his heart because seeking people were being shut out from the presence of God.

Is there anything in our church life, an exclusiveness, a coldness, a lack of welcome, a tendency to make the congregation into a closed club, an arrogance, which keeps the seeking stranger out? Let us remember the wrath of Jesus against those who made it difficult and even impossible for the seeking stranger to make contact with God. Let us learn to respect holy places, holy times, holy objects and holy persons.

The Good News about God!

Luke 15:1-10

By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. 2 The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, "He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends." 3 Their grumbling triggered this story. 4 "Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn't you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? 5 When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, 6 and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, 'Celebrate with me! I've found my lost sheep!' 7 Count on it--there's more joy in heaven over one sinner's rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue. 8 "Or imagine a woman who has ten coins and loses one. Won't she light a lamp and scour the house, looking in every nook and cranny until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it you can be sure she'll call her friends and neighbors: 'Celebrate with me! I found my lost coin!' 10 Count on it--that's the kind of party God's angels throw every time one lost soul turns to God."

Food for thought!

There is no chapter of the New Testament so well known and so dearly loved as the fifteenth chapter of Luke's gospel. It has been called "the gospel in the gospel," as if it contained the very distilled essence of the good news which Jesus came to tell.

The parable arose out of real life situation. It was an offence to the scribes and Pharisees that Jesus associated with men and women who, by the orthodox, were labelled as sinners. So Jesus told them the parable of the lost sheep and the shepherd's joy, in order to tell us something about God.

God the Father, says Jesus, is as glad when a lost sinner is found as a shepherd is when a strayed sheep is brought home. As a great saint said, "God, too, knows the joy of finding things that have gone lost."

There is a wondrous thought here. God is kinder than men. Many of us would write off the tax-collectors and the sinners as worthless, and as deserving of nothing but destruction; not so God. We may give up hope of a sinner; not so God. God loves the folk who never stray away; but in his heart there is the joy of joys when a lost one is found and comes home. It is a thousand times easier to come back to God than to come home to the bleak criticism of men.

Another stiry is of a woman's lost coin. The woman swept the floor in the hope that she might see the coin glint or hear it tinkle as it moved. But why would anyone look for a lost coin like this woman did?

It may have been a matter of sheer necessity. 4 p does not sound very much but it was more than a whole day's wage for a working man in Palestine. These people lived always on the edge of things and very little stood between them and real hunger. The woman may well have searched with intensity because, if she did not find, the family would not eat.

It is easy to think of the joy of the woman when at last she saw the glint of the elusive coin and when she held it in her hand again. God, says Jesus, is like that. The joy of God, and of all the angels, when one sinner comes home, is like the joy of a home when a coin which had stood between them and starvation has been lost and is found

Failing to plan is planning to fail!

Luke 14:25-33

25 One day when large groups of people were walking along with him, Jesus turned and told them, 26 "Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters--yes, even one's own self!--can't be my disciple. 27 Anyone who won't shoulder his own cross and follow behind me can't be my disciple. 28 "Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn't first sit down and figure the cost so you'll know if you can complete it? 29 If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you're going to look pretty foolish. Everyone passing by will poke fun at you: 30 'He started something he couldn't finish.'31 "Or can you imagine a king going into battle against another king without first deciding whether it is possible with his ten thousand troops to face the twenty thousand troops of the other? 32 And if he decides he can't, won't he send an emissary and work out a truce? 33 "Simply put, if you're not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it good-bye, you can't be my disciple.

Food for thought!

Once Benjamin Franklin said, Failing to plan is planning to fail. This is what Jesus reaches us today when he says,  "Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn't first sit down and figure the cost so you'll know if you can complete it? If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you're going to look pretty foolish. Everyone passing by will poke fun at you: 'He started something he couldn't finish."'

An unfinished building, just as unrealized life, is always a humiliating thing. And Jesus wants to save us from such shame. In his book "How to Succeed", Brian Adams wrote, “Plans are guideposts to success. Success arrives by design; failure by the lack of it. Plans are the guide posts along life’s road to success; without them the road is an unsure and rocky one. Poorly devised plans will never harvest riches. Achievements can be no greater than the undertakings. If your plans are sketchy and your aims low, you can never hope to achieve high rewards."

To develop a workable plan of action, mentally visualize the things you want to accomplish. Jot them down across a sheet of paper, then list the steps necessary to accomplish your plan. When you know what you want to achieve, create a plan for getting there. Once you have a basic plan, follow through with the plan until you achieve your objectives.

Stephen Covey, author of "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", recommends that we “begin (planning) with the end in mind.” The best planning encompasses what you want to accomplish and where you want to end up. Whether it is a special project or a simple daily routine, begin by setting a goal that takes into account the steps needed to reach it.

And once you have set a (noble) goal, don't give up before you achieve it. Or as Jesus put it, be ready for sacrifice in order to get it. In other words, if you're not willing to pay the price, then you don't know what you want. Behind everything we want in life, behind every achievement, there's a cost to pay; there's a cross. Without the cross there's no salvation, no gain, no victory, no worthy achievement. Remember, “failing to plan is planning to fail.” Just as a road map is an indispensable tool for a trip, the cross in whatever forms it comes to us, is an indispensable tool when we travel the journey of life toward our goals. 

Did you notice? Jesus does not say, If you have a cross...; he says, Anyone who won't shoulder his own cross and follow behind me can't be my disciple. In other words, Jesus knows that we all have some cross to carry. Do you know yours?

The heavenly banquet!

Luke 14:15-24

15 One of his fellow guests on hearing Jesus said to him: "How fortunate the one who gets to eat dinner in God's kingdom!" 16 Jesus followed up. "Yes. For there was once a man who threw a great dinner party and invited many. 17 When it was time for dinner, he sent out his servant to the invited guests, saying, 'Come on in; the food's on the table.' 18" Then they all began to beg off, one after another making excuses. The first said, 'I bought a piece of property and need to look it over. Send my regrets.' 19 "Another said, 'I just bought five teams of oxen, and I really need to check them out. Send my regrets.' 20" And yet another said, 'I just got married and need to get home to my wife.' 21 "The servant went back and told the master what had happened. He was outraged and told the servant, 'Quickly, get out into the city streets and alleys. Collect all who look like they need a square meal, all the misfits and homeless and wretched you can lay your hands on, and bring them here.' 22" The servant reported back, 'Master, I did what you commanded-- and there's still room.' 23 "The master said, 'Then go to the country roads. Whoever you find, drag them in. I want my house full! 24 Let me tell you, not one of those originally invited is going to get so much as a bite at my dinner party. '"

Food for thought!

In Palestine, when a man made a feast, the day was announced long beforehand and the invitations were sent out and accepted; but the hour was not announced; and when the day came and all things were ready, servants were sent out to summon the already invited guests. To accept the invitation beforehand and then to refuse it when the day came was a grave insult.

In the parable the master stands for God. The originally invited guests stand for the Jews. Throughout all their history they had looked forward to the day when God would break in and come, and when he did, they tragically refused his invitation. The poor people from the streets and lanes stand for the tax-gatherers and sinners who welcomed Jesus in a way in which the orthodox never did. Those gathered in from the roads and the hedges stand for the non Jews like you and I, for whom there is still ample room at the feast of God. Both nature and grace abhor a vacuum. So, when the Jews refused God's invitation and left his table empty, the invitation went out to us, non Jews.

This said, what happened to the Jews, can happen to us! The people in the parable made excuses that do not differ very much from ours today.

(i) The first man said that he had bought a field and was going to see it. He allowed the claims of business to usurp the claims of God. It is still possible for a man to be so immersed in this world that he has no time to worship, and even no time to pray.

(ii) The second man said that he had bought five yoke of oxen and that he was going to try them out. He let the claims of novelty usurp the claims of Christ. It often happens that when people enter into new possessions they become so taken up with them that the claims of worship and of God get crowded out. People have been known to acquire a new car and then to say, "We used to go to church on a Sunday, but now we go off to the country for the day." It is perilously easy for a new game, a new hobby, new something, even a new friendship, to take up even the time that should be kept for God.

(iii) The third man said, with even more finality than the others, "I have married a wife, and I cannot come." It is one of the tragedies of life when good things crowd out the claims of God. There is no lovelier thing than a home and yet a home was never meant to be used selfishly. They live best together who live with God; they serve each other best who also serve their fellow-men; the atmosphere of a home is most lovely when those who dwell within it remember that they are also members of the great family and household of God.

On being generous!

Luke 14:12-14

12 Jesus also said to the man who had invited Him, When you give a dinner or a supper, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, lest perhaps they also invite you in return, and so you are paid back. 13 But when you give a banquet or a reception, invite the poor, the disabled, the lame, and the blind. 14 Then you will be blessed (happy, fortunate, and to be envied), because they have no way of repaying you, and you will be recompensed at the resurrection of the just (upright).

Food for thought!

Here is a searching passage, because it demands that we should examine the motives behind all our generosity.
The underlying question is, why do we give when we give? What makes people want to donate? What lies behind our gifts?

(i) We may give from a sense of duty.
We may give to God and to man much in the same way as we pay our income tax, as the satisfaction of a grim duty which we cannot escape.

(ii) We may give purely from motives of self-interest. Consciously or unconsciously we may regard our giving as an investment. We may regard each gift as an entry on the credit side of our account in the ledger of God. Such giving, so far from being generosity, is rationalized selfishness.

(iii) We may give in order to feel superior; whenever we give there's an accompanying sense of superiority to the recipient. Such giving can be a cruel thing. It can hurt the recipient much more than a blunt refusal. When we give like that we stand on our little eminence and look down. We may even with the gift throw in a short and smug lecture. It would be better not to give at all than to give merely to gratify one's own vanity and one's own desire for power. The best kind of giving is when the giver does not know to whom he is giving, and when the receiver does not know from whom he is receiving.

(iv) We may give because we cannot help it. That is the only real way to give. The law of the kingdom is this, that if a man gives to gain reward he will receive no reward; but if a man gives with no thought of reward his reward is certain. The only real giving is that which is the uncontrollable outflow of love. God gave because he so loved the world, and so must we.

Love God 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!

“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 teachers of religious law. I want and am going to base our reflection today solely on 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 inour 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 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 as 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 know ing 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 thinking!