In the Gospel of Luke, we are told that one day a religious leader asked Jesus, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

The question to Jesus is rather curious. One wonders why the man felt the need to ask that question so directly. Really, if he had been listening, what else had Jesus been speaking about since His public ministry began?

Still, Jesus, like any good teacher, engaged the question of His student. He asked the scholar of the law what answer to His question he finds in the Scriptures, in God’s Word.

And the scholar gives the famous answer, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

And Jesus’ answer to him has echoed through the centuries of faith as well, “... do this and you will live.” (Lk 10: 25-28).

The exchange between Jesus and the religious leader was brief.

The Scriptural quote about loving God with everything we have and are comes from the Book of Deuteronomy. It captures for all time the challenge of faith, of faith truly lived in the midst of earthly sorrows, distractions and the temptations of this world.

We might each ask, “What would it truly mean for me to love God with all my heart, all my being, all my strength?” Our answer might be divided into two parts.

First, we are told that to have eternal life, heaven itself, we are to love God. Our modern society reduces love to a sentiment.

Even more, love is presented as an emotion over which we have little control. We “fall in love” as if it were an accident. And if things get tough, that good feeling might be gone. That is the basis of that terrible phrase, “I don’t love you anymore.”

If, however, we have been told by God Himself that we are to love Him, that is a command, not a hope or a feeling. And because it is a command from God that means, by our nature and with the help of God’s grace, we can fulfill that command.

This is clarifying for our spiritual thoughts. Love is the giving of ourselves. We can decide to give ourselves to God in every aspect of life, in good times and in tough moments.

All of this is because love is much more than a feeling or a sentiment. It is what our human nature was made for.

Heaven itself will be for each of us, if we are faithful, an on-going exchange of our very selves with God and with the other saints.

The second part of Jesus’ answer, however, has its own spiritual importance for our trial in this world. We are to give ourselves to God in love totally and completely.

What else could it mean to give ourselves to God with all our heart, all our being and all our strength?
These words of Jesus should make us ask how fully do we give ourselves to God?

We see many who have fallen away from faith, for whatever reason not giving themselves to God at all. We need to pray for them and make spiritual sacrifices for such sinners as Mary told us at Fatima.

But perhaps more insidious is the attitude of making some time for God in our busy lives. It is all too easy to content oneself with “fitting God in” with one’s lifestyle.

That might mean contenting ourselves with attending Mass on Sunday, occasionally, or perhaps a little prayer now and then. The danger is that little by little, Sunday Mass becomes sporadic. Prayer becomes at best ritualistic and not heartfelt.

And love for God becomes a formality, not a total giving of self.

Just as the man who found the treasure in the field, with joy sold all that he had to buy the field, and the one who found the pearl of great price paid everything, so are we before heaven, before God.

We cannot dicker with God over the price of heaven, over the meaning of total love for Him. To do so would be to ask God to settle for less than all of ourselves.

Ask yourself, am I loving God with all my heart, being and strength? Or am I just making room for God?

For each of us the judgment of heaven or hell rests on the answer to that question.