John Carberry
New member
Love God with All of Your Mind
by John Carberry
We must all seek to understand. In the Parable of the Sower, the seed that was sown on the
footpath and eaten by the birds represents the one who failed to understand (Mt 13:4, 19). Christ
criticizes the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel,
placing importance on the lesser elements and neglecting the weightier aspects of the faith: judgment,
mercy and fidelity (Mt 23:23-24). Some Bible translations use justice (NASB, New Jerusalem Bible, RSV,
Knox) rather than judgment (KJV, Douay Rheims), or right judgement. However, both are acts of the
mind since justice begins with a proper interpretation and judgment implies a mental decision. Satan
tempts Eve by telling her that eating the forbidden fruit will open her eyes, making her like gods who
know good and evil, and implying that she would gain a greater wisdom through her disobedience (Gn
3:5-6). Adam and Eve did not gain a greater wisdom, but rather their wisdom was corrupted, moved
by the wisdom of the world rather than the wisdom of God. Wisdom implies making choices. Worldly
wisdom maximizes pleasure and minimizes pain. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die (Is
22:13, Lk 12:19, 1 Cor 15:32). True wisdom comes from God. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my
ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Is 55:8-9, Rom 11:33-34, Sir 24:26-
27, Mi 4:12). Saint Louis de Montfort compared the trade of Esau’s birthright for a bowl of pottage to
his brother, Jacob (Gn 25:29-34, Heb 12:16-17), as a trade of the pleasures of paradise for the
pleasures of the earth.1 Divine wisdom pursues goodness and avoids evil: do good and avoid evil (Ps
34:14-15, 37:27, Dt 6:18, Is 1:16-17, 56:1-2, Am 5:14-15, Mi 6:8, Rom 12:9, 1 Thes 5:21-22, 1 Pt 3:11-12,
3 Jn 1:11). Such wisdom recognizes that we are all subject to the final judgment resulting in eternal life
or eternal punishment. True wisdom is hidden from the wise and learned but revealed to the childlike
and innocent (Mt 11:25-27, Is 26:5, 29:14, 2 Cor 4:3-4).
“You shall love the Lord your God …, with all of your mind” (Mt 22:37, Mk 12:30, Lk 10:27). The
Old Testament commands to love God are limited to heart, soul and strength (Dt 6:5, 10:12, 11:13,
13:4, 26:16, 30:6, Jos 22:5, 2 Kgs 23:3, 23:25, 1 Chr 22:19, 2 Chr 34:31). Jesus adds mind when he
summarizes how we should love God. Perhaps it is only after the appearance of the Word who teaches
us his way that we can comprehend God’s truth (Jn 15:22). Jesus not only adds mind, but he later
discusses the effects. One’s speech comes from what fills the mind (Mt 15:18) which is sourced from
what fills the heart (Lk 6:45). One will be judged based on the evil or goodness of one’s heart, which is
reflected in how one’s mind processes it, how one’s speech exhibits it (Mt 12:33-37, Acts 16:14) and
how one’s deeds demonstrate it (Mt 5:16).
Why is judgment so important? One of the most dangerous sins is that of presumption, like the
pride of Adam and Eve, who wanted to define good and evil on their own. Christ said that the sins
against the Holy Spirit are unforgivable (Mt 12:31). Pope Saint John Paul II said that sins against the
Holy Spirit include the refusal to accept forgiveness, what we sometimes call despair (or hopelessness),
and when a person rejects redemption and claims to have a right to persist in evil, what we refer to as
presumption (Jn 9:41, 15:22, Lk 18:9-14, Dt 17:12, Sir 5:1-8, 32:17, Nm 12:1-15, 16:1-3, 30-35, 1 Sm
15:10-29, Jer 6:10, 8:6, 12).2 Pope Benedict XVI said that man’s real sin is hubris, or the arrogant
presumption of autonomy (Rom 14:7) leading a person to put on the airs of divinity, to claim to be his
own god.3 One must both accept God’s forgiveness and acknowledge one’s guilt.
We see an increasing divide in what people believe today. Even among believers, we see a
chasm in the definition of good and evil. In February of 2014, Univision conducted a poll of Catholics
regarding whether they agreed or disagreed with Church teachings on such controversial topics as
same-sex marriage, legal abortion, contraceptive use, etc.4 In the United States, only 40% agreed with
the Catholic Church on the immorality of same-sex marriage, 21% on legal abortion, and 15% on
contraceptive use.
In addition to a fetus having a right to live, abortion is a crime. With other sexual ethic issues
such as homosexuality, pre-marital sexual relations, contraceptives, and transgenderism, the
criminality may be more uncertain, but the immorality of the activities is unambiguous. These issues
rely on the argument that the purpose of sexuality is to come together in love and create new life.
Many Catholics believe that abortion is immoral, but not an issue that should be regulated by the state.
For a fetus to have a right to live, the state must protect it and prohibit abortion. The fetus is a unique
and vulnerable human being, unlike a toenail or other body part that can be discarded at will.
For many, contraceptives moved from an immoral action to a non-moral issue in the last
century. Since the sin of Onan (Gn 38:8-10), 4000 years ago, theologians considered forms of
contraception immoral. Early Protestant reformers such as Luther and Calvin wrote that any means of
regulating births was highly immoral. It was not until 1930 that the Protestants broke from the
Catholic Church on this issue during the Lambeth Conference. Afterward, contraceptives became
acceptable to many of the Protestant religions.
The Catholic Church never conceded the immorality of contraceptives. After the Lambeth
conference, the Church under Pope Pius XI quickly came out with the encyclical Casti Connubii (Chaste
Wedlock) in 1930, sustaining the position that any frustration of the natural birthing process was a
grave sin.5 The Second Vatican Council in 1965 said that too often we dishonor married love through
selfishness, hedonism, and unlawful contraceptive practices.6 Pope Saint Paul VI followed the
development of the birth control pill with the encyclical Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life) in 1968,
providing that any chemical process that hinders procreation is inherently wrong and unlawful.7
Humanae Vitae bases this argument on the twofold purpose of the conjugal act, that it should be both
unitive and procreative. Saint John Paul II affirmed the Church’s teaching against contraceptives in his
encyclical Evangelium Vitae (Gospel of Life) in 1995. He called contraceptives and abortion specifically
different evils: the former contradicts the full truth of the sexual act as the proper expression of
conjugal love, while the latter destroys the life of a human being.8 Love is a sincere gift of self.9
Responsible procreation happens when the family is generously open to new lives.10
Sexuality is holy when we cooperate with God in his plan for humanity. God considered his
creation of the universe as good. Only when God completes his work with the creation of humankind
does he consider it very good (Gn 1:31). Humankind was formed in the divine image (Gn 1:27, Ps 8:5-
6); male and female he created them (Gn 1:27). Humans are directed to be fruitful and multiply, to fill
the earth and to subdue it (Gn 1:28). In the second story of creation, we see the unitive aspect of
marriage. Male and female were made to come together as one body (Gn 2:23-24). In the marital
embrace, the spouses’ bodies unite in love to become one. When the sperm and egg unite, a new
human being becomes one, formed from the two bodies. When the couple comes together sexually
and procreate, they cooperate with God, which Eve recognizes when she bears her first child (Gn 4:1).
When we cooperate with God through our sexuality, we follow the will of God: “Your will be done” (Mt
6:10). This cooperation means that our loving union with our spouse (unitive) should always be open
to new life (procreative). Like our Blessed Mother, we should always say yes to God: “Behold, I am the
handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).
“By their fruits you will know them” (Mt 7:16). We often look at the Ten Commandments as a
list of prohibitions. However, generally if one action is evil, the opposite action is virtuous.
Disobedience to authority is wrong; obedience is right. Stealing is evil; giving is good. Bearing false
witness is a sin, but being honest is virtuous. Accordingly, one would expect that if killing a human
being is evil, then creation should be good. Christ cursed the barren fruit tree because it bore no fruit
(Mt 21:18-22, 3:10, Mk 11:12-14, Lk 13:6-9). This call to do good, to produce that which is very good,
provides the reasoning for so many laws and statutes related to our sexuality.
The promotion of marital fertility in what appears to be an overcrowded world seems to
conflict with popular thinking, but not for those who believe in an almighty God. Moses did not believe
that if all the sheep and cattle were slaughtered and all the fish in the sea were emptied out that it
would be enough to feed the six hundred thousand soldiers and their families in the desert (Nm 11:21-
23), but they were all fed (Nm 22:31-32, Hos 13:5-6). Similarly, the apostles were amazed at the catch
of fish (Lk 5:4-7, Jn 21:5-6) when they lowered their nets as directed by Jesus, or the multiplication of
the fish and the loaves (Mt 14:13-21, 15:32-38, Mk 6:30-44, 8:1-9, Lk 9:12-17, Jn 6:1-15, 2 Kgs 4:42-44).
Just as the Lord feeds the Israelites for forty years in the desert (Nm 14:33, Jos 5:6, Is 30:20), he will
provide for his people in abundance (Lv 25:19-22, 26:5, 2 Cor 9:8-10). These examples demonstrate
God’s ability to feed his people and to fulfill his promises (Rom 4:21).
Perhaps a more rational approach to understanding the evil of artificial birth control is not
God’s ability to feed his people, but rather, what makes the marital relationship holy? If procreation is
not a cause of cooperation with the holiness of God’s creative nature, then what makes the sexual act
holy and distinct? We may find ourselves misguided or we may fail to recognize cause and effect, like
the scribes and Pharisees during the time of Christ (Mt 23:13-22). If the goodness of creation is not the
reason for appropriate sexual behavior, then what is? Saint Augustine (354-430) stated that the
purpose of God’s creation of women was procreation. “I do not see, therefore, in what other way
woman was made to be the helper of man if procreation is eliminated, and I do not understand why it
should be eliminated.”11 “For, although the natural use, when it goes beyond the marriage rights, that
is, beyond the need for procreation, is pardonable in a wife but damnable in a prostitute, that use
which is against nature is abominable in a prostitute but more abominable in a wife.”12 Augustine also
states: “…but it is quite clear that they were created male and female, with bodies of different sexes,
for the very purpose of begetting offspring, and so increasing, multiplying, and replenishing the earth;
and it is great folly to oppose so plain a fact.”13
The word repent means to rethink. Whether we learn from history, follow tradition, or obey
established authorities, we must clear our minds of the secular falsehoods to recognize the truth of
God’s Word.
John Carberry is the author of the book: Sacraments: Signs, Symbols and Significance (2023).
1 Louis de Montfort, Saint (1693-1716), True Devotion to Mary, translated from the original French by Frederick William Faber, DD., priest of the Oratory
(Spring Grove, PA: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, 2021), p. 83.
2 John Paul II, Dominum Et Vivificantem (Lord and Giver or Life), 46.
3 Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, p. 98 & 257.
4 Univision, Voice of the People, https://maryofmagdala-mke.org/.../Vatican questionnaire results 2.2014.pd...
Downloaded 8/6/2019.
5 Pius XI, Casti Connubii (Chaste Wedlock), 56.
6 Vatican Council II, Gaudium et Spes (Joy and Hope), 47 & 51.
7 Paul VI, Humanae Vitae (On Human Life), 14.
8 John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (Gospel of Life), 13.
9 John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (Gospel of Life), 96.
10 John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (Gospel of Life), 97.
11 Saint Augustine, The Literal Meaning of Genesis, Volume II, Book 9 (The Creation of Woman), Chapter 7, 12 (The Good of Marriage), translated and
annotated by John Hammond Taylor, S.J., Ancient Christian Writers (New York, Newman Press, 1982), Volume 42, p. 77.
12 Augustine, Saint, The Good of Marriage, The Ascetic Debates and Augustine’s Response, Saint Augustine on Marriage and Sexuality, Edited by Elizabeth
Clark, (The Catholic University of America Press, 1996), Chapter 11, p. 54.
13 Augustine, Saint, The City of God, Book XIV, Chapter XXIII. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120114.htm, Downloaded 2/10/2020.
by John Carberry
We must all seek to understand. In the Parable of the Sower, the seed that was sown on the
footpath and eaten by the birds represents the one who failed to understand (Mt 13:4, 19). Christ
criticizes the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel,
placing importance on the lesser elements and neglecting the weightier aspects of the faith: judgment,
mercy and fidelity (Mt 23:23-24). Some Bible translations use justice (NASB, New Jerusalem Bible, RSV,
Knox) rather than judgment (KJV, Douay Rheims), or right judgement. However, both are acts of the
mind since justice begins with a proper interpretation and judgment implies a mental decision. Satan
tempts Eve by telling her that eating the forbidden fruit will open her eyes, making her like gods who
know good and evil, and implying that she would gain a greater wisdom through her disobedience (Gn
3:5-6). Adam and Eve did not gain a greater wisdom, but rather their wisdom was corrupted, moved
by the wisdom of the world rather than the wisdom of God. Wisdom implies making choices. Worldly
wisdom maximizes pleasure and minimizes pain. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die (Is
22:13, Lk 12:19, 1 Cor 15:32). True wisdom comes from God. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my
ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Is 55:8-9, Rom 11:33-34, Sir 24:26-
27, Mi 4:12). Saint Louis de Montfort compared the trade of Esau’s birthright for a bowl of pottage to
his brother, Jacob (Gn 25:29-34, Heb 12:16-17), as a trade of the pleasures of paradise for the
pleasures of the earth.1 Divine wisdom pursues goodness and avoids evil: do good and avoid evil (Ps
34:14-15, 37:27, Dt 6:18, Is 1:16-17, 56:1-2, Am 5:14-15, Mi 6:8, Rom 12:9, 1 Thes 5:21-22, 1 Pt 3:11-12,
3 Jn 1:11). Such wisdom recognizes that we are all subject to the final judgment resulting in eternal life
or eternal punishment. True wisdom is hidden from the wise and learned but revealed to the childlike
and innocent (Mt 11:25-27, Is 26:5, 29:14, 2 Cor 4:3-4).
“You shall love the Lord your God …, with all of your mind” (Mt 22:37, Mk 12:30, Lk 10:27). The
Old Testament commands to love God are limited to heart, soul and strength (Dt 6:5, 10:12, 11:13,
13:4, 26:16, 30:6, Jos 22:5, 2 Kgs 23:3, 23:25, 1 Chr 22:19, 2 Chr 34:31). Jesus adds mind when he
summarizes how we should love God. Perhaps it is only after the appearance of the Word who teaches
us his way that we can comprehend God’s truth (Jn 15:22). Jesus not only adds mind, but he later
discusses the effects. One’s speech comes from what fills the mind (Mt 15:18) which is sourced from
what fills the heart (Lk 6:45). One will be judged based on the evil or goodness of one’s heart, which is
reflected in how one’s mind processes it, how one’s speech exhibits it (Mt 12:33-37, Acts 16:14) and
how one’s deeds demonstrate it (Mt 5:16).
Why is judgment so important? One of the most dangerous sins is that of presumption, like the
pride of Adam and Eve, who wanted to define good and evil on their own. Christ said that the sins
against the Holy Spirit are unforgivable (Mt 12:31). Pope Saint John Paul II said that sins against the
Holy Spirit include the refusal to accept forgiveness, what we sometimes call despair (or hopelessness),
and when a person rejects redemption and claims to have a right to persist in evil, what we refer to as
presumption (Jn 9:41, 15:22, Lk 18:9-14, Dt 17:12, Sir 5:1-8, 32:17, Nm 12:1-15, 16:1-3, 30-35, 1 Sm
15:10-29, Jer 6:10, 8:6, 12).2 Pope Benedict XVI said that man’s real sin is hubris, or the arrogant
presumption of autonomy (Rom 14:7) leading a person to put on the airs of divinity, to claim to be his
own god.3 One must both accept God’s forgiveness and acknowledge one’s guilt.
We see an increasing divide in what people believe today. Even among believers, we see a
chasm in the definition of good and evil. In February of 2014, Univision conducted a poll of Catholics
regarding whether they agreed or disagreed with Church teachings on such controversial topics as
same-sex marriage, legal abortion, contraceptive use, etc.4 In the United States, only 40% agreed with
the Catholic Church on the immorality of same-sex marriage, 21% on legal abortion, and 15% on
contraceptive use.
In addition to a fetus having a right to live, abortion is a crime. With other sexual ethic issues
such as homosexuality, pre-marital sexual relations, contraceptives, and transgenderism, the
criminality may be more uncertain, but the immorality of the activities is unambiguous. These issues
rely on the argument that the purpose of sexuality is to come together in love and create new life.
Many Catholics believe that abortion is immoral, but not an issue that should be regulated by the state.
For a fetus to have a right to live, the state must protect it and prohibit abortion. The fetus is a unique
and vulnerable human being, unlike a toenail or other body part that can be discarded at will.
For many, contraceptives moved from an immoral action to a non-moral issue in the last
century. Since the sin of Onan (Gn 38:8-10), 4000 years ago, theologians considered forms of
contraception immoral. Early Protestant reformers such as Luther and Calvin wrote that any means of
regulating births was highly immoral. It was not until 1930 that the Protestants broke from the
Catholic Church on this issue during the Lambeth Conference. Afterward, contraceptives became
acceptable to many of the Protestant religions.
The Catholic Church never conceded the immorality of contraceptives. After the Lambeth
conference, the Church under Pope Pius XI quickly came out with the encyclical Casti Connubii (Chaste
Wedlock) in 1930, sustaining the position that any frustration of the natural birthing process was a
grave sin.5 The Second Vatican Council in 1965 said that too often we dishonor married love through
selfishness, hedonism, and unlawful contraceptive practices.6 Pope Saint Paul VI followed the
development of the birth control pill with the encyclical Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life) in 1968,
providing that any chemical process that hinders procreation is inherently wrong and unlawful.7
Humanae Vitae bases this argument on the twofold purpose of the conjugal act, that it should be both
unitive and procreative. Saint John Paul II affirmed the Church’s teaching against contraceptives in his
encyclical Evangelium Vitae (Gospel of Life) in 1995. He called contraceptives and abortion specifically
different evils: the former contradicts the full truth of the sexual act as the proper expression of
conjugal love, while the latter destroys the life of a human being.8 Love is a sincere gift of self.9
Responsible procreation happens when the family is generously open to new lives.10
Sexuality is holy when we cooperate with God in his plan for humanity. God considered his
creation of the universe as good. Only when God completes his work with the creation of humankind
does he consider it very good (Gn 1:31). Humankind was formed in the divine image (Gn 1:27, Ps 8:5-
6); male and female he created them (Gn 1:27). Humans are directed to be fruitful and multiply, to fill
the earth and to subdue it (Gn 1:28). In the second story of creation, we see the unitive aspect of
marriage. Male and female were made to come together as one body (Gn 2:23-24). In the marital
embrace, the spouses’ bodies unite in love to become one. When the sperm and egg unite, a new
human being becomes one, formed from the two bodies. When the couple comes together sexually
and procreate, they cooperate with God, which Eve recognizes when she bears her first child (Gn 4:1).
When we cooperate with God through our sexuality, we follow the will of God: “Your will be done” (Mt
6:10). This cooperation means that our loving union with our spouse (unitive) should always be open
to new life (procreative). Like our Blessed Mother, we should always say yes to God: “Behold, I am the
handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).
“By their fruits you will know them” (Mt 7:16). We often look at the Ten Commandments as a
list of prohibitions. However, generally if one action is evil, the opposite action is virtuous.
Disobedience to authority is wrong; obedience is right. Stealing is evil; giving is good. Bearing false
witness is a sin, but being honest is virtuous. Accordingly, one would expect that if killing a human
being is evil, then creation should be good. Christ cursed the barren fruit tree because it bore no fruit
(Mt 21:18-22, 3:10, Mk 11:12-14, Lk 13:6-9). This call to do good, to produce that which is very good,
provides the reasoning for so many laws and statutes related to our sexuality.
The promotion of marital fertility in what appears to be an overcrowded world seems to
conflict with popular thinking, but not for those who believe in an almighty God. Moses did not believe
that if all the sheep and cattle were slaughtered and all the fish in the sea were emptied out that it
would be enough to feed the six hundred thousand soldiers and their families in the desert (Nm 11:21-
23), but they were all fed (Nm 22:31-32, Hos 13:5-6). Similarly, the apostles were amazed at the catch
of fish (Lk 5:4-7, Jn 21:5-6) when they lowered their nets as directed by Jesus, or the multiplication of
the fish and the loaves (Mt 14:13-21, 15:32-38, Mk 6:30-44, 8:1-9, Lk 9:12-17, Jn 6:1-15, 2 Kgs 4:42-44).
Just as the Lord feeds the Israelites for forty years in the desert (Nm 14:33, Jos 5:6, Is 30:20), he will
provide for his people in abundance (Lv 25:19-22, 26:5, 2 Cor 9:8-10). These examples demonstrate
God’s ability to feed his people and to fulfill his promises (Rom 4:21).
Perhaps a more rational approach to understanding the evil of artificial birth control is not
God’s ability to feed his people, but rather, what makes the marital relationship holy? If procreation is
not a cause of cooperation with the holiness of God’s creative nature, then what makes the sexual act
holy and distinct? We may find ourselves misguided or we may fail to recognize cause and effect, like
the scribes and Pharisees during the time of Christ (Mt 23:13-22). If the goodness of creation is not the
reason for appropriate sexual behavior, then what is? Saint Augustine (354-430) stated that the
purpose of God’s creation of women was procreation. “I do not see, therefore, in what other way
woman was made to be the helper of man if procreation is eliminated, and I do not understand why it
should be eliminated.”11 “For, although the natural use, when it goes beyond the marriage rights, that
is, beyond the need for procreation, is pardonable in a wife but damnable in a prostitute, that use
which is against nature is abominable in a prostitute but more abominable in a wife.”12 Augustine also
states: “…but it is quite clear that they were created male and female, with bodies of different sexes,
for the very purpose of begetting offspring, and so increasing, multiplying, and replenishing the earth;
and it is great folly to oppose so plain a fact.”13
The word repent means to rethink. Whether we learn from history, follow tradition, or obey
established authorities, we must clear our minds of the secular falsehoods to recognize the truth of
God’s Word.
John Carberry is the author of the book: Sacraments: Signs, Symbols and Significance (2023).
1 Louis de Montfort, Saint (1693-1716), True Devotion to Mary, translated from the original French by Frederick William Faber, DD., priest of the Oratory
(Spring Grove, PA: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, 2021), p. 83.
2 John Paul II, Dominum Et Vivificantem (Lord and Giver or Life), 46.
3 Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, p. 98 & 257.
4 Univision, Voice of the People, https://maryofmagdala-mke.org/.../Vatican questionnaire results 2.2014.pd...
Downloaded 8/6/2019.
5 Pius XI, Casti Connubii (Chaste Wedlock), 56.
6 Vatican Council II, Gaudium et Spes (Joy and Hope), 47 & 51.
7 Paul VI, Humanae Vitae (On Human Life), 14.
8 John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (Gospel of Life), 13.
9 John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (Gospel of Life), 96.
10 John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (Gospel of Life), 97.
11 Saint Augustine, The Literal Meaning of Genesis, Volume II, Book 9 (The Creation of Woman), Chapter 7, 12 (The Good of Marriage), translated and
annotated by John Hammond Taylor, S.J., Ancient Christian Writers (New York, Newman Press, 1982), Volume 42, p. 77.
12 Augustine, Saint, The Good of Marriage, The Ascetic Debates and Augustine’s Response, Saint Augustine on Marriage and Sexuality, Edited by Elizabeth
Clark, (The Catholic University of America Press, 1996), Chapter 11, p. 54.
13 Augustine, Saint, The City of God, Book XIV, Chapter XXIII. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120114.htm, Downloaded 2/10/2020.