“When the Pharisees heard that he [Jesus] had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him” (Mt 22:34-35).  Unlike other times, the question this lawyer will pose won’t be to trick Jesus but to see if He has sufficient knowledge to be a rabbi, as He claimed.

In a similar way, let’s test ourselves today, not to trick ourselves or to discourage, but to get more information about our relationship with Jesus, about our spiritual health, so that we can grow!  This also gets us ready for our Christ the King Challenge on Nov. 22, when we ask if we’ve made the decision to place Jesus at the center of our lives, because He’s placed us at the center of His life.

The lawyer asks, “Teacher, which commandment in the Law is the greatest?” (22:36).  It’s well known that there were 613 precepts and laws in the Old Testament—that’s a lot.  Thus, it was debated: Which takes priority?  And since it’s hard to remember 613 laws, is there a way we can summarize the main point of all of them?

We’ve asked before: What’s the most important thing in life to do?  What does God want us to do?  Our society’s answer is: Be a good person.  Jesus’ answer is completely different: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  This is the greatest and first commandment” (22:37-38).  Most people incorrectly think that God wants us to be good but doesn’t care if we love Him in return; loving Him isn’t important.  This is like saying to our parents, ‘Mom, Dad, you’ve done lots for me and I’m thankful.  But why do you expect me to call you so often?  Why do I have to come over for dinner?  I’m busy.  I’m a good person.  I’ve got my own life now.  You did your job.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love you.  I’ve got to go.’

Because we’ve discussed this many times, I’d like to be  clearer: For us who are Christian and have been here for a few years, if we think being nice is the most important thing in life, fair enough.  However, please don’t say that God or Jesus think that.  That is wrong.  God loves us: He created us, but we reject Him.  Jesus did not die on the Cross to make us good people, but to reconcile us to our Father.  He doesn’t want us to be good butto love Him in return.

In 2013, 500 students at Augusta University were asked which they would save: their drowning dog or a drowning foreigner?  40 percent said they’d save Fido.  For a follower of Christ, this is inconceivable.  Jesus says, “And a second is like it [that is, like the first commandment]: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’” (22:39).  For a follower of Jesus, as much as we love our pets, we’d always save a human being because they’re more valuable than animals.

The lawyer was testing Jesus’ knowledge of God.  We want to test our love of Jesus.  We’ve said before that, when we place Jesus at the center of our lives, three parts are involved: the will, the intellect, and the heart.  Now let’s say we choose to follow Jesus but don’t know Him well or aren’t enthusiastic about Him, I call this blind obedience: We feel that we have to follow Him, but this isn’t the fullness of love.  Or let’s say we know lots about Jesus but again, aren’t enthusiastic about Him and haven’t chosen to follow Him—I’d say we’re a student of Jesus.  Finally, if our heart is engaged but we don’t know much about Him and haven’t chosen to follow Him—we’re a fan of Jesus, but again, this isn’t love.  To love Jesus with all our heart, soul, and mind, we need all three parts of us engaged.  So, do we lean towards one of these three?  Is any a weakness for us?  Please never be discouraged.  Let’s see them as building blocks.  If we have one, praise God!  How can we obtain the other two?

Let’s go one step further.  If our will and intellect are engaged, then we’re an obedient scholar—but we don’t have much heart towards Jesus.  If our intellect and heart are engaged but we haven’t made a choice to follow Jesus, then we’re an intelligent fan (that might explain why we don’t fully obey Him or the Church).  Finally, if we’ve made a choice and our hearts are engaged but we don’t know much about Jesus and His life, teachings, and the Church, then we’re a passionate slave.  To know Jesus doesn’t necessarily mean we know theology, but that we love learning about Him; even people who aren’t intellectually gifted still can tell you details about their best friends.

This is an opportunity to grow.  I mentioned before that, when it comes to the Holy Spirit, I used to be more of a slave.  I would follow Him blindly but didn’t know much about Him and didn’t explicitly listen or talk to Him.

When it comes to our Mother Mary, I’ve been more of an obedient scholar: I know her and have chosen to obey her, but, for many years, my heart wasn’t fully engaged.  I noticed other people speaking about her with enthusiasm—wow!

The first way to improve our relationship with Jesus is to ask the Holy Spirit to help us.  He is the One Who reveals Jesus to us and helps us respond.  ‘Holy Spirit, please help me to make the choice to follow Jesus, to learn Who He is, and please give me an enthusiasm about Him.’

We’ve used the word enthusiasm many times because the word comes from Greek meaning ‘in God’/‘en thous.’  We’re enthused when the Holy Spirit is in us!  Look at sports fans—for many, it’s their god.  They’ve made a choice never to miss a game, they know everything about their team, and look at the way they cheer; when their team wins, they’re happy that day; when the team loses, they’re depressed.  When the Holy Spirit is in us, we make a choice to love Jesus more than our family; we choose not to miss Mass.  We hunger to know more about Him and talk to people about Him!

The second way to improve our relationship with Jesus is to do more than we currently are doing.  We all reach spiritual plateaus.  If we’ve been coming to Sunday Mass for years—that’s good, but for us, it may be a plateau.  But let’s say we’re exploring faith; for us, coming to Mass is an improvement!  The point is: What we’re doing now got us to where we are; if we want to go further, we need to do more.

We now have a testimony of someone who’s placed Jesus at the center of her life:

 

Everything we’ve talked about reflects the way Jesus loves us: He loves us with all His heart, soul, and mind.  We place Him at the center of our lives because He’s placed us at the center of His.