25 August, 2017. Friday, Week 20

0 Comments
|
Saint Louis of France; Saint Joseph Calasanctius, priest

1st Reading: Ruth 1:1, 3-6, 14-16, 22

Ruth migrates to Bethlehem, with her widowed mother-in-law

In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. When they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Chilion also died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.

Then she started to return with her daughters-in-law from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had considered his people and given them food. Then they wept aloud again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

So she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said, “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.

So Naomi returned together with Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, who came back with her from the country of Moab. They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

Gospel: Matthew 22:34-40

Jesus declares as central the love of God and neighbour

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

BIBLE

Love well rewarded

In Ruth’s story, we see how a foreign woman was integrated and welcomed into the family of Israel. Her love-story blends nicely with Our Lord’s teaching in today’s Gospel, identifying the core of God’s will as the supreme law of love. The Book of Ruth has served many purposes. Its earliest form may come from David’s time, as a text to support his legitimacy as God’s choice for king, despite his partly foreign ancestry. In postexilic times Ruth served the purpose of those opposed the idea of separating Jews from all foreigners. In time, her story was linked with the feast of Pentecost and wheat harvest. As Pentecost also commemorated the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, the Book of Ruth mysteriously pointed to that other Pentecost, after the death of Jesus, when Jews from many nations were welcomed into the Church. The book tells a lovely story, interweaving personal loss with a rebirth of hope, and highlights the mutual love of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. The latter, Ruth, is drawn by affection for Naomi to join her faith, “Wherever you go I will go .. your people shall be my people, and your God shall be my God too.”

If Jesus begins with the love of God and links it to love of neighbour, in Ruth the reverse process is at work: starting from her loyalty to Naomi she arrives at the love of God. Elsewhere, too, the Bible affirms that natural neighbourly love has its source in divine love. We can love, because God first loved us. Naomi and Ruth return to Bethlehem as widows, with little to show for their life so far. Frequently in salvation history God revives people on the verge of death: from slavery in Egypt, from near conquest by the Philistines, from Babylonian exile. That a child was born to a childless couple also affirms God’s power to create hope where all hope seemed lost.

The Gospel has Jesus’ reply to a lawyer’s question. First the lawyer intends to trip him up, but Jesus transcends all intrigue and argument, and in simple, moving words declares the greatest commandment of the law, “You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, soul, mind.” And the second is like it, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” These two principles already existed in the Torah of Moses, but Jesus brings them to the very centre of his vision for life.

A testing question

The question put by the scribe in today’s gospel was confrontational, for it was asked to test Jesus. The question, “Which is the greatest commandment in the law?” was meant to trip him up. The scribe hoped Jesus would give an answer that would show him up in a bad light. But the answer went beyone what was asked. Jesus not only stated the greatest commandment but the second greatest as well. The first is a quotation from the Book of Deuteronomy, that God is to be loved with all one’s being, heart, mind and soul. No creature, not matter how noble, is to be loved in this way. The second commandment, to love our neighbour as ourselves, is a quotation from the book of Leviticus. Yes, God must come first, but there is no true love of God without love of neighbour. We cannot claim to be honouring God if we dishonour another human being in any way, no matter how different he or she might be from us. Jesus brings together these two commandments from different parts of the Bible, as no one else had done. He shows us very clearly that the way to God always passes through other people. Elsewhere in Matthew’s gospel Jesus identifies with our neighbour, especially the vulnerable and broken neighbour. To that extent the way to God always passes through Jesus himself.

Saint Louis of France

Louis IX (1214-1270) from Poissy, near Paris, was king of France from the age of twelve until his death at fifty six. He was a patron of the arts and of the church, and went on two crusades, first in his mid-30s in 1248 and then again in his mid-50s in 1270, when he died of plague in Tunis. He is the only canonised king of France.

Saint Joseph Calasanctius, priest

José de Calasanz (1557-1648) from Aragon, Spain, was sent to study law as his parents wanted him to marry. Following a grave sickness in 1582 he was ordained priest in 1583. After nine years of ministry in Spain, he moved to Rome where he worked mainly in the instruction of neglected children. In November 1597, he opened the first free public school in Europe. In 1602, he began the Piarists (Congregation of the Pious Schools,) the first religious institute dedicated essentially to teaching.

 

Join the Discussion

Keep the following in mind when writing a comment

  • Your comment must include your full name, and email. (email will not be published). You may be contacted by email, and it is possible you might be requested to supply your postal address to verify your identity.
  • Be respectful. Do not attack the writer. Take on the idea, not the messenger. Comments containing vulgarities, personalised insults, slanders or accusations shall be deleted.
  • Keep to the point. Deliberate digressions don't aid the discussion.
  • Including multiple links or coding in your comment will increase the chances of it being automati cally marked as spam.
  • Posts that are merely links to other sites or lengthy quotes may not be published.
  • Brevity. Like homilies keep you comments as short as possible; continued repetitions of a point over various threads will not be published.
  • The decision to publish or not publish a comment is made by the site editor. It will not be possible to reply individually to those whose comments are not published.