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Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)

For: Saturday, August 20, 2011

20th Week in ordinary time

Memorial: St Bernard, Abbot and Doctor

From: Ruth 2:1-3, 8-11; 4:13-17

Ruth is well received by Boaz

[1] Now Naomi had a kinsman of her husband’s, a man of wealth, of the family
of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. [2] And Ruth the Moabitess said to Nao-
mi, “Let me go to the field, and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose
sight I shall find favour.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter. [3] So she set
forth and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and she happened to
come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elime-
lech.

[8] Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in
another field or leave this one, but keep close to my maidens. [9] Let your eyes
be upon the field which they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged
the young men not to molest you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels
and drink what the young men have drawn.” [10] Then she fell on her face, bow-
ing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favour in your eyes, that
you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?” [11] But Boaz answered
her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your hus-
band has been fully told me, and how you left your father and mother and your
native land and came to a people that you did not know before.

Marriage of Boaz and Ruth

[13] So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife; and he went into to her, and
the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. [14] Then the women said to
Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without next of kin,
and may his name be renowned in Israel! [15] He shall be to you a restorer of
life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who
is more to you than seven sons, has borne him.” [16] Then Naomi took the child
and laid him in her bosom, and became his nurse. [17] And the women of the
neighbourhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They
named him Obed; he was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

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Commentary:

2:1-17. The Lord richly rewards Ruth. These pages speak of the providence of
God who, very discreetly, as if everything happened naturally, was disposing
events to ensure that Naomi and Ruth would have everything they needed. “The
witness of Scripture is unanimous that the solicitude of divine providence is con-
crete and immediate; God cares for all, from the least things to the great events
of the world and its history. The sacred books powerfully affirm God’s absolute
sovereignty over the course of events: ‘Our God is in the heavens; he does what-
ever he pleases’ (Ps 115:3). And so it is with Christ, ‘who opens and no one
shall shut, who shuts and no one opens’ (Rev 3:7). As the book of Proverbs
states: ‘Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the
Lord that will be established’ (Prov 19:21)” (Catechism of the Catholic Church,
303).

The Law laid down that once a field was reaped, it should not be gone back over
to gather grain that had fallen or been missed by the reapers; this would allow
needy people to pick up any grains that still lay on the ground (cf. Lev 19:9-10
and Deut 24:19). Ruth avails herself of this humanitarian stipulation and follows
the reapers in search of food; this takes her into Boaz’ field. When visiting his
men, Boaz notices Ruth and is kind to her when he hears who she is.

This kindness is a sign of the protection given her by “the Lord, the God of Israel
under whose wing you have come to take refuge” (2:12), as Boaz will tell her. The
idea of having recourse to the Lord in order to shelter under his wings occurs of-
ten in the Bible (cf. Deut 32:10-11; Ps 17:8; 36:8; 61:5; 63:8; and 91: 4); it is a
very poetic way of describing the tenderness with which God takes care of those
who have recourse to him. Our Lord Jesus Christ uses the image to show how
much he loves the Holy City, and yet his love is not returned: “How often would I
have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,
and you would not!” (Mt 23:37).

4:13-22. Ruth has benefitted from the redemption performed by Boaz has become
a member of the people of God. God blessed their union with a son, Obed, who
in time would be the grandfather of David the king. And so it happened that this
Moabite woman who left her family and country out of faithfulness to the God of
her first husband, was generously rewarded by that God: he made her one of the
great women who played leading roles in salvation history (cf. 4:11-12). Ruth be-
came a forebear of David (vv. 18-22; cf. 1 Chron 2:5-15).

In St. Matthew’s Gospel the name of Ruth appears as a direct forebear of Jesus
Christ (Mt 1:5). “It is only right that St Matthew should record in his Gospel that
the Lord, who came to call Gentiles to form part of the Church, became man in
a lineage which included foreigners” (St Ambrose, Expositio Evangelium secun-
dum Lucam, 3, 33).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)

For: Saturday, August 20, 2011

20th Week in ordinary time

Memorial: St Bernard, Abbot and Doctor

From: Matthew 23:1-12

Vices of the Scribes and Pharisees

[1] Then said Jesus to the crowds and to His disciples, [2] “The scribes and the
Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; [3] so practice and observe whatever they tell you,
but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice. [4] They bind heavy
burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves
will not move them with their finger. [5] They do all their deeds to be seen by
men; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, [6] and they
love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues, [7] and
salutations in the market places, and being called rabbi by men. [8] But you are
not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brethren. [9] And
call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in Heaven. [10]
Neither be called masters, for you have one master, the Christ. [11] He who is
greatest among you shall be your servant; [12] whoever exalts himself will be
humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

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Commentary:

1-39. Throughout this chapter Jesus severely criticizes the scribes and Phari-
sees and demonstrates the sorrow and compassion He feels towards the ordina-
ry mass of the people, who have been ill-used, “harassed and helpless, like sheep
without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). His address may be divided into three parts:
in the first (verses 1-12) He identifies their principal vices and corrupt practices;
in the second (verses 13-36) He confronts them and speaks His famous “woes”,
which in effect are the reverse of the Beatitudes He preached in Chapter 5: no
one can enter the Kingdom of Heaven—no one can escape condemnation to the
flames — unless he changes his attitude and behavior; in the third part (vv. 37-39)
He weeps over Jerusalem, so grieved is He by the evils into which the blind pride
and hardheartedness of the scribes and Pharisees have misled the people.

2-3. Moses passed on to the people the Law received from God. The scribes, who
for the most part sided with the Pharisees, had the function of educating the peo-
ple in the Law of Moses; that is why they were said to “sit on Moses’ seat”. Our
Lord recognized that the scribes and Pharisees did have authority to teach the
Law; but He warns the people and His disciples to be sure to distinguish the Law
as read out and taught in the synagogues from the practical interpretations of the
Law to be seen in their leaders’ lifestyles. Some years later, St. Paul — a Phari-
see like his father before him — faced his former colleagues with exactly the same
kind of accusations as Jesus makes here: “You then who teach others, will you
not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who
say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor
idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by
breaking the law? For, as it is written, ‘The name of God is blasphemed among
the Gentiles because of you’” (Romans 2:21-24).

5. “Phylacteries”: belts or bands carrying quotations from sacred Scripture which
the Jews used to wear fastened to their arms or foreheads. To mark themselves
out as more religiously observant than others, the Pharisees used to wear broa-
der phylacteries. The fringes were light-blue stripes on the hems of cloaks; the
Pharisees ostentatiously wore broader fringes.

8-10. Jesus comes to teach the truth; in fact, He is the Truth (John 14:6). As a
teacher, therefore, He is absolutely unique and unparalleled. “The whole of Christ’s
life was a continual teaching: His silences, His miracles, His gestures, His prayer,
His love for people, His special affection for the little and the poor, His acceptance
of the total sacrifice on the cross for the redemption of the world, and His resurrec-
tion are the actualization of His word and the fulfillment of revelation. Hence for
Christians the crucifix is one of the most sublime and popular images of Christ
the Teacher.

“These considerations are in line with the great traditions of the Church and they
all strengthen our fervor with regard to Christ, the Teacher who reveals God to
man and man to himself, the Teacher who saves, sanctifies and guides, who lives,
who speaks, rouses, moves, redresses, judges, forgives, and goes with us day
by day on the path of history, the Teacher who comes and will come in glory” (Bl.
John Paul II, “Catechesi Tradendae”, 9).

11. The Pharisees were greedy for honor and recognition: our Lord insists that
every form of authority, particularly in the context of religion, should be exercised
as a form of service to others; it must not be used to indulge personal vanity or
greed. “He who is the greatest among you shall be your servant”.

12. A spirit of pride and ambition is incompatible with being a disciple of Christ.
Here our Lord stresses the need for true humility, for anyone who is to follow Him.
The verbs “will be humbled”, “will be exalted” have “God” as their active agent.
Along the same lines, St. James preaches that “God opposes the proud, but
gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). And in the “Magnificat”, the Blessed Vir-
gin explains that the Lord “has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exal-
ted those of low degree [the humble]” (Luke 1:52).