Cedric Pisegna - The Core of Christianity

Welcome to «Live with Passion»! I’m Father Cedric Pisegna. This comes from the Gospel of Mark chapter 12: «Scribe came up to Jesus and said, 'Which commandment is the first of all? ' Jesus said, 'This is the first, „Hear, O Israel! The Lord, our God, the Lord is one and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength“. This is the first and the second is this: „You shall love your neighbor as yourself“. There is no other commandment greater than these.'»

Back in the '70s, there was a rock and roll group called the Bee Gees. And they sang a song, very poignant, and it was called «How Deep is Your Love»? And I think that’s especially poignant when it comes to our love for God. Is it shallow, intense? On a scale of 1 to 10, how deep is your love? What would it be? Ten? Nine? Eight? Seven? That’s what I want you to consider. Jesus just told us that the first commandment is to love God with all… most of us love God with some. The good news is that we can grow in love. And I’m praying, as you listen to this episode and watch this episode, that you will grow in love. Because our journey, the journey of Christianity, really is a journey of faith.

It’s a pilgrimage of progression and maturity. But it’s about growth, growth in character, but especially growth in your love, your love for God, your love for others, and your love for yourself. We equate love with feeling. I’m attracted to you. You give me goose bumps. I’m connected to you. I feel warm all over when I’m around you. That’s kind of the honeymoon stage, if you will. There is an allurement, an attraction, a magnetic pull. We think that that’s love, maybe falling in love. But psychologists tell us that love is more than a feeling. It’s a decision, it’s a choice, especially when the feelings go away. It’s a choice to forgive, to be generous, to be kind, to be respectful to another. You want the good of another. You make good decisions.

When you get married, for example, you consent with each other, they choose to be with each other. They have that attraction. But after a while, the feelings kind of go away and now the marriage is held together by choice, by decisions, by being generous, by forgiving, by being with the other, and wanting the good for the other. Sometimes people hold hands and they walk arm in arm and that’s good because they’re showing affection for each other because a part of love is, it’s affection, it’s feeling, but it’s also a decision and a choice. One of the greatest privileges that I had as a priest was sometime back, my parents who are now both passed away, they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and I stood right between them as they professed their vows to each other. And I was able to look into their eyes and see them look at each other.

Now, this is 50 years after they were married, long time ago, probably the intense honeymoon feelings wore off. They knew each other’s habits. They had lived together, they’d been together for all those years, and they’ve seen things come and go and yet they still profess those vows of love for each other. It was a choice, a decision, and forgiveness, and I’m sure they had affection for each other, but it was such a privilege for me. You see, love can deepen. Fruit ripens, wine matures, and love deepens. The feelings may not be the same feelings as when you got married, but now they’re still there. But it has to do with a decision and a choice primarily, and the feelings can come and go. We are told in the scriptures that God is love. God loves us affectionately, passionately, unrelenting love. Miss Francis Thompson, a great poet and mystic called God the Hound of Heaven. He’s relentless in his love, chases after us, passionate love, deep love. How deep is God’s love?

The bottom line is, is that we need to receive this love. And I’m praying as you’re watching this episode right now, as we talk about loving God and loving others, first of all, and this comes right from the scriptures. This is 1 John chapter 4: «This is love, not that we have loved God, but God has loved us first». So in order to love God and to love people, as Jesus is inviting us to do, we need to receive the love of God and I pray, right now, right where you are, you will receive God’s love. God’s love will saturate you, touch your heart. That’s what we were made for: God’s love.

I pray that you will soak it in because once you’re touched, once you’ve tasted and seen the goodness of the Lord, once you’ve had that experience of God’s love, you wanna reciprocate, you wanna respond, you wanna give yourself to God. The bottom line is, is Jesus was calling us to love God with our mind and with our heart, with our soul, with our strength, with all that we are, with our deeds, with our body. And that can only happen if you’ve experienced God’s love and I’m praying that you will experience God’s love.

In fact, I wrote a book called «You are Loved» and it’s all about experiencing the love of God. And I pray that you’ll get that book, because when you experience God’s love and you know God in a personal way, then you want to love God with all that you are. When Jesus was challenged, he spoke about the greatest commandment and he answered in a way that they all knew, the Jewish people of that time knew. He said, «Hear, O Israel. The Lord is one». We believe in Trinity: God, the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Three persons, but one God. «God is one,» Jesus said, «and you shall love the Lord your God». Love, remember, it’s affection, it’s feeling, but it’s also a decision over and over and over again that we have to make. «Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength».

And then he added Leviticus 19:18: «'Love your neighbor as yourself.' This is the greatest commandment. And the second is just like it». To love your neighbor as yourself is one of the ways that we love God. First of all, Jesus told us to love God with our mind. Our mind, of course, our thinking, our consciousness. People say that Christianity is a religion of the heart and they’re absolutely right. Christianity is a religion of the heart, but it’s also a religion of the mind. It’s a both/and not an either/or. Most people say, «Well, it’s a religion of the heart». Well, yes, it is, you’re right, but it’s the mind too. Sometimes I think religious people leave their mind out of it. They just live with their heart. It’s not an either/or; it’s a both/and.

I was educated in a seminary after college, and it helped form my mind with religious things. I learned from scholars. I learned about archaeology. I studied in the Holy Land. I studied in Rome. I learned about science. Classes, books, writing papers, having exams, learning is one of the ways that my mind was formed. And I submitted myself to all that, years and years of education, because I love God. I love God with my mind. You see, God gave us our minds to develop and to grow. Those who have had near-death experiences, tell us that one of the major reasons why we’re alive is to learn and to grow and to exercise our mind. You may not be able to go to seminary. Most of you have been to some type of a school. Many of you have been to college, but you can learn by watching educative episodes.

Go to the scriptures, good spiritual books, magazines, newspapers. I already talked about that book, «You are Loved,» that I wrote. Perfect for you to receive the love of God. This is how you stretch your mind. I like that saying, «A mind once stretched by a book will never return to its original form». Love God with your mind. There’s a great tradition in the Catholic Church of something called contemplation, that’s called prayer of mindfulness, where you literally go before God in silence and in quiet. And you let God possess your mind, you let God saturate your mind. You give your mind to God, your thoughts to God. And then the scriptures talk about, think about the things that are above instead of what’s just on earth. Things that are above have to do with being positive and forgiving, creative, compassionate, generous. Love God with all your mind.

And then, of course, as I said, it’s not an either/or it’s a both/and. You love God with your heart. You see that our heart is our emotions, our affections, desires, decisions, and even memory. Memory is a part of our heart. In fact, you’ll notice that I’m wearing something on my religious habit. This is my religious habit. I’m a Passionist priest. What I’m wearing is called our sign. You see the cross and beneath the cross is a heart and in the heart are the words in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, «The Passion of Jesus Christ». We have a saying, actually it’s a vow and a saying. Our vow is to meditate upon the Passion of Jesus with our heart. And our motto is, «May the Passion of Jesus Christ be always in our heart».

It’s the memory of the Passion, we believe, is one of the prime ways that we can love Jesus by remembering what he did for us at the Passion, how he suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was betrayed at the Last Supper, and then the intolerable suffering of the Passion. We remember Jesus’s Passion. We profess a vow to do that, and it breaks our heart. We give him our heart. We find unity with Christ as we remember his Passion.

When you have a heart for God, you want to worship, you feel the desire to praise. You love God with your heart. If you remember David, one time, they were bringing the ark of the covenant which contained the laws of Moses and some of the bread of manna and the rod of Aaron. And they were bringing the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem, into the temple, and David danced before the ark. His wife said that you looked like a fool when you were doing that. And David said, «How could I not? I love the Lord». David had a heart for God. And when you have a heart for God, you want to get together and worship. You wanna participate in church. You wanna be a part of the community. David had a heart for God.

Also, he wrote Psalm 51. When he had sinned, he prayed for God’s cleansing and mercy. He said, «Create in me a clean heart, O God». He prayed for forgiveness. Love God with all your heart. And then Jesus said, «The first commandment is to love God with all your soul». Our soul, of course, is that part of us that’s gonna live forever. Our soul is eternal. Our soul will live on after death. We believe as believers that we’re on the way to heaven, of course, because Jesus died for us on the cross. But our soul right now is that part of us that is I call it the exuberance and the passion. The title of this program and all of my programs, «Live with Passion»! What is soul? Soul is if you’ve ever seen the National Anthem being sung in front of 50,000 people and the singer with a smile on their face belting out that beautiful hymn, that’s soul.

So many people live lukewarm lackluster lives. And what they need to be doing is to love God with their soul. God has put potential into all of us and we need to really come to the full expression of our potential. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by all the needs in the world, but our soul is when we reach out to others, when we use our gifts, realize our potential. Not to usurp it just for ourselves, but to reach out. And there’s so many needs. You know that saying that I have that I really love, it’s the foundation of my ministry: «Who you are is God’s gift to you. But who you become is your gift to God».

We become by developing our talents and not usurping it all for ourselves, but reaching out to people and there’s so many needs. Our passion is community. We’re a community of priests, brothers, and sisters. We’re dedicated to the memory of the Passion, but we’re also dedicated to the ministry of the Word. The ministry of the Word, we have retreats, we preach parish missions, we proclaim the gospel on television and radio, we write books. What we’re trying to do is to minister to people in a specific way through the Word to save souls. The soul is the most important part of us. The motto of my ministry is touching lives and saving souls. I think about my partners and my benefactors and those who support me. I thank God for you because you’re participating with me in my outreach to save souls.

That’s the most important thing that we can do. To love God with all of our soul is to save souls, because our soul is gonna live forever and we gotta make sure that people are on the way to heaven. That’s exactly what I’m trying to do with my ministry. By the way, if you just tuned in and you’re looking at this religious program and you’re wondering what all this is. I pray for your soul. I believe that God has led you here so that you can be reborn and have eternal life and come to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Your soul is the part of you that will never die. And it’s really important that, as priests and as ministers, that we reach out to people so that their souls can be saved. And that’s what we do as Passionists.

By the way, there are certainly other outreaches that we have. We reach out to the incarcerated, migrants, hospitals, those contemplating abortions trying to help them to have their children, young people, other cultures. We have a big outreach to Hispanics here in the United States. Saint Paul of the cross, our founder, saw the name of Jesus on the forehead of the poor. We reach out to the poor and to various causes, but the number one thing that we do is the ministry of the Word, reaching out to souls of people to bring them eternal life, because your soul is the most important part of who you are. Love God with all your soul by developing your talent, realizing your potential, live with passion, get involved, and reach out to people.

And then of course, you love God with all your strength. You are stronger than you think you are. When you’re tempted, you can be strong. You can love God with all your strength. I think about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was just about to be tortured and put to death. It was a terrible moment for him, the worst moment of his life. Even his best friends, three of them: Peter, James, and John, who he took with him in the Garden of Gethsemane, they fell asleep on him. They couldn’t even stay awake for one hour with him. He’s all alone now, depleted of all of his strength. And yet he still loved God with what he had, with all of his strength, with everything that he had, even though he was sweating blood. You are stronger than you think you are.

When you’re tempted, don’t just fall, be strong. When you face challenges, don’t just give up, be strong. Jesus won strength for you by giving everything. He’s our great high priest who can sympathize because he’s been through everything that we have except he did not sin. Love God with all your strength. Sometimes I get tired in ministry and it’s hard writing new talks and I get depleted, but I give everything I have. I try to love God with all my strength and I found out I’m stronger than I thought I was. And so are you. God has loved us first. What we’re trying to do when we love God with all of our mind and heart and soul and strength, we’re trying to reciprocate and God is so worthy of our reciprocation, so worthy of our response, because God’s love, remember what Paul prayed in Ephesians?

«I pray that you will know the height and the depth and the length and the breadth of God and experience God’s love». And then once you do, it’s like, I wanna give myself back to you. You are worthy, you will never betray me. You are faithful. Your love is so intense and unrelenting and passionate. And I want my love to become like yours. That’s the journey of a Christian. And how deep is your love? God has loved us first. And God’s love is multifaceted. You ever see a diamond? It has all kinds of facets. God’s love is multifaceted. For example, he loves us like a parent, father, mother, God is our Father. He loves us like that because we’re his creation. Then he loves us like a friend who is faithful and never abandoned us.

Remember what Jesus said? «I call you friends because I’ve revealed to you what the Father has revealed to me». He’s our friend who walks with us. Remember this series is about «I Am with You». He’s with us as a parent and as a friend. It’s like a marriage, intimacy, depth, and knowing. The prophet Isaiah, God calls himself our husband through the prophet Isaiah. Hosea, the prophet, God says, «I’m gonna woo you into the desert and speak tenderly to your heart». These are love words here: tenderly, woo you, husband, and we will call God our husband. Then in the New Testament, heaven is called the wedding feast of the Lamb.

And what’s the wedding feast all about? Who’s the bride? We’re the bride of the Lamb. The church is the bride of the Lamb. Heaven is gonna be this great wedding feast where, finally, the marriage will be consummated. And for those of you who are married, the love and intimacy that you share with your spouse is but a facsimile of the love that God has for us and the love that we should have for God. When you marry someone, you wanna share life together, communicate, share intimate moments, get to know each other. This is the heart of the new covenant that we have in the Bible. «All of you from the least to the greatest of you will know me,» says the Lord.

There is affection and mutual sharing and depth. I’m a religious priest. I’ve given myself to religious life, to prayer, to community. And I have to tell you that it’s all about, not so much a rigid ritualistic religion. It’s about a sacred romance. It’s about a marriage. Some religious wear rings because they’re married. We’re married to God, if you will. And it’s all about a romance. In the Song of Songs, we hear «I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine. I belong to God and God belongs to me. God’s my inheritance. I’m an heir to God, my possession». And you know what love is? It’s soft, it’s tender, it’s intimate, personal, precious. And the question remains, how deep is your love? Is it all that Jesus asked for? Is it some?

And I pray that, from this episode, your love will grow because it’s so important. Love is the core of Christianity, the heart of our faith. And I pray most of all that you will receive the love of God, that you can love God more fully. Please get that book, «You are Loved». I started with a song by the Bee Gees. I wanna end with a song by Crystal Gayle, very lovely woman who sang back in the '70s and '80s and '90s. Crystal Gayle had a song called «Half the Way». And the verses are, these: «Half of your love is not what I’m after. Don’t take me half the way. Give me all of your love,» and I pray that you will love God with all. Don’t just live; live with passion.