The Saint

By Catholic Editor, Faith Addington

In the Bible, it is said that the greatest commandment is to “love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Matthew 22:37). At a first glance, this commandment can seem pretty straightforward; we are called to love God with everything in us. However, that begs the question of how we love God with everything in us. Before we answer this question, we must first understand what this commandment means. 

The first important distinction to be made is the definition of love. Love, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, is to will the good of another over your own (Summa Theologica). In other words, we must put God over the desires of our heart, the desires of our soul, and the desires of our mind. 

The second important distinction is between heart, soul and mind. The heart is where the inner feelings, emotions and impulses arise. The soul is the immortal and immaterial “spiritual principle of a man,” considered the innermost part of the man (CCC 363). Lastly, the mind is where the inner thinking occurs. These parts together lead us to make decisions in accordance to what we believe to be our will. Our good. Not the good of our God. Concluding this distinction, we are able to conclude that we should put God over our inner feelings, emotions and impulses, over our own spiritual principle and over our inner thinking. 

Now that the greatest commandment has been dissected, we can begin to contemplate how this can be brought to fruition. To truly begin willing the good of God over our own good, we must first scrutinize every aspect of our lives: the decisions we make on the daily, our longer-term choices, our relationships, even the dark corners of our thoughts. Each of these decisions and choices should be rooted in His good. Anything rooted in something other than our Lord comes from the devil.

There are many ways to redirect our heart, soul, and mind towards God. Stay vigilant for impure thoughts, feelings or impulses and know that those do not come from Him. Call upon our Lord every single morning and invite Him into our day. Ask Him for guidance and wisdom before every decision – big and small – and pray that you stay upon His path for you. 

Throughout this lifetime, we are called to constantly fight against our every impulse for at the root of these thoughts and desires, is an imperfect human. We must choose Him every single moment of every single day because He first chose us.