Hi, I'm Matthew Kelly, and welcome to Feed Your Soul. This Sunday, we encounter one of the shortest gospel readings, but also one of the most quoted gospel readings. "But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 'Teacher, which is the greatest of the commandments in the law?' And he said to them, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest of the commandments and the first. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments rest all the law and the prophets.'"

So how are you doing? If these are the big two, how are you doing? And if we have to think about it, we're probably not paying attention. And there's probably a really good lesson for us in that. Think about these two commandments, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. And the second one, love your neighbor as yourself." If you had to give yourself a score between 1 and 10 for each of these commandments and you can't use the number 7, what would your score be? We tend not to think about our spirituality in this way. But by asking these types of questions, we can drive incredible focus and intentionality.

For example, if before you went to bed each night for the next 30 days, you just took the first commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. If for the next 30 days you gave yourself a score between 1 and 10 not using 7 every day for the next 30 days, what would happen? You would love the Lord your God with more of your heart, with more of your soul, and with more of your mind. Why? Because what we measure, we pay attention to. By measuring this, we would drive incredible focus and intentionality. And as we go through our day, we would be mindful that, "Okay, if I'm going to love the Lord my God with all my heart, in this situation, I probably should act in this way." And in another situation, it might be, "Okay, if I'm going to love the Lord with all of my soul or all of my mind, then I probably shouldn't be doing this or exposing myself to this." When we measure something, it drives intentionality.

Now can we measure how holy a person is? No. Can we measure what percentage of your heart, mind, and soul you're making available to God? No. But we do have a sense within us. It's not necessarily something that someone else can judge. But we are able to judge ourselves in a healthy, respectful, constructive way and say, "Hmm, okay, if I had to give myself a score between 1 and 10 not using 7 for loving the Lord my God with all my heart, mind, and soul, what number would I give myself?" Just asking the question, just going through the exercise, makes us realize that we're not living the commandment with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And that, of course, is a call. It's a call to-- it's a call to greatness. It's a call to be more of a champion in living out the faith. It's a call to excellence. And without these types of examinations of self, we can very easily fall into mediocrity when it comes to living out our faith in the midst of the world. So give yourself a score. I realize it's maybe uncomfortable. But give yourself a score for the greatest commandment. "Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, mind, and soul." And for the second, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Give yourself a score between 1 and 10, not using 7, and then work to increase that score this week. Because it's that kind of drive, it's that kind of intentionality, it's that kind of focus that leads us to really live our faith with passion and purpose.