our lord tells us in the gospel or reminds us what was said in the old testament that we should love
the lord our god with all our heart soul mind and strength and to love our neighbor as we love
ourselves we love our god with all our heart with all our affections all our emotions all our desires
and dreams with all our soul with the depths of our our being our eternity with all our mind all
our thoughts all our decisions all our imagination all our plans and all our strength all our energy
all our efforts all of this we have to do he says is our lord exaggerating is he using hyperbole like
he does in other places
do we really have to do this love god that much how can we do our do our our activity our work
how can we relate to our neighbor if we have to love god and all this consuming
totality and then love our neighbor as ourself as we love ourselves
what about those who say i don't want to be too religious i don't want to become a fanatic
well what did the saints do the saints the saints observed this they loved god with all their heart
and i've met a few people in my life who have loved god with this kind of totality
and we can we in religious life are especially supposed to be examples of this kind of total
love for for god because we've consecrated ourselves we have we have uh taken vows of
poverty chastity and obedience i'm not going to say that's not true but i'm going to say that's basket
of poverty chastity and obedience i'm not going to say that's not true but i'm going to say that's
but to me at least the most byłish is operating restה
casey i am in for example and i'm experiencing it and hoping to getLP because i'm in for too many days
which frees us to love God in this way
with fewer distractions and fewer
obstacles to do this. But all of us
who are baptized, have consecrated ourselves, even
lay people, even those who work in the world, are called to love God
in this way. To do all our activities
in the world for God, for the purpose of pleasing Him
whether we're married or a single or working
as a lay person, as well as those who are religious
and this is what it means to become a saint.
When we're in heaven, we'll be serving God
with this kind of totality. So why not here on earth?
Is that fanaticism?
Fanaticism really is when those who do everything
to all their religious practices
to be seen, to be praised, not
for the sincere effort to please God and to do His will
and to be too religious
that's what we're called to do. We're called to be totally
religious. We're called to serve God. That's what it means to have a God
to be God. How do you contrast this with somebody who's an atheist
doing the complete opposite of what
he was called to do, what he was made for?
We are made for God. We are made to serve Him
completely and totally in an all-consuming way
in all totality.
So we have to approximate this more and more in our life.
We have to see those ways where we are
serving ourselves and where we are putting God
outside of our mind and our efforts
and we have to draw closer and closer to this
ideal, to this command, to loving God
with all our efforts.
We are being all our self, all our mind and soul
and heart. And let us ask our lady who has done this,
who did this perfectly, to be more and more like her
and to follow her example.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you for joining us today.
I'll see you next time.
Here.
Here.
Here.