B eing loved is the cure and the promise of God’s ongoing presence.  The faithfulness of even one person can open up the world.

Memorial of Saint Pius X

Ruth 1:1, 3-6, 14b-16, 22

Psalm 146:5-6ab, 6c-7, 8-9a, 9bc-10

M atthew 22:34-40  But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. (35) And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, to test him. (36) "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" (37) And 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. (38) This is the great and first commandment. (39) And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (40) On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."  

* Meditation by Jeanne Schuler

T he Faithful One

The family had come to Moab to escape famine, and they found a home there among strangers.  After the men died, Naomi hit bottom.  No husband.  No sons.  No grandson to carry on the name.  Even God seemed to abandon her.  With nothing left to give, Naomi sent her sons’ wives back to their families and renamed herself misery.

But Ruth would not leave.  She pledged to follow Naomi back to Bethlehem , where they would make a new life.  Ruth scrounged in the barley fields for food.  Naomi figured out the plan to secure Boaz’s protection.  It was not easy.  But together they found the courage to continue living.

Despair says that nothing is left.  I live as one already dead.  The care of another can drive despair back into its corner.  Being loved is the cure and the promise of God’s ongoing presence.  The faithfulness of even one person can open up the world.

By the measure of the marketplace, Ruth is puzzling.  What will she get out of it?  In handing over her life in love, the women are blessed.  Here is an old story that remains new.

* Supplementary Reading

HE SuRRouNDS you

. . . for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to the childlike. – Matthew 11:25

W hile driving to the grocery one Christmas season, I asked my then six-year-old nephew if he was excited to see Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. He replied with a firm “no.”

“There’s no Santa here,” he added.

“Huh?” I replied, “Why is there no Santa here?”

“Because there’s no snow.”

I had a good laugh. A simple observation from a little boy. His innocence made him speak with a lot of sense.

God chose to reveal the fulfilment of His plans to the childlike because their ignorance made them see with eyes of faith. When you are losing faith because of the troubles that you face, notice the constant signs around you that tell you of God’s presence in your life — the unexpected phone call from a friend who offered you a job when you felt hopeless about finding one, the comforting hug from a child after a tiring day at work, the contagious laughter of a workmate that got you laughing hard when you badly wanted to cry because of a pressing problem at home. That’s God at work.

Like little children, let us trust in our Father’s ways. Nova Arias (Kerygma)

R EFLECTION:

The root of all difficulties is a lack of the sense of the Presence of God. (Emmett Fox) Father, strengthen my faith in You. Make me feel and see You every day.