Contemplating today's Gospel
Today's Gospel + homily (in 300 words)
Boaz said to Ruth, «Listen, my daughter! Do not go to glean in anyone else’s field; you are not to leave here. Stay here with my women servants. Watch to see which field is to be harvested, and follow them; I have commanded the young men to do you no harm. When you are thirsty, you may go and drink from the vessels the young men have filled». Casting herself prostrate upon the ground, Ruth said to him, «Why should I, a foreigner, be favored with your notice?». Boaz answered her: «I have had a complete account of what you have done for your mother-in-law after your husband’s death; you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and have come to a people whom you did not know previously».
Boaz took Ruth. When they came together as man and wife, the Lord enabled her to conceive and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, «Blessed is the Lord who has not failed to provide you today with an heir! May he become famous in Israel! He will be your comfort and the support of your old age, for his mother is the daughter-in-law who loves you. She is worth more to you than seven sons!». Naomi took the child, placed him on her lap, and became his nurse. And the neighbor women gave him his name, at the news that a grandson had been born to Naomi. They called him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
You wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your home; your children like olive plants around your table.
Behold, thus is the man blessed who fears the Lord.
The Lord bless you from Zion: may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life.
As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers. Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven. Do not be called ‘Master’; you have but one master, the Christ. The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
Fr. Antoni CAROL i Hostench (Sant Cugat del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain)Today, once more, Jesus Christ presents to us a request for humility, an invitation to position ourselves in the true place we belong: “As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’… Neither should you call anyone on earth Father… Nor should you be called leader” (Mt 23:8-10). Before assuming all these titles let us try to thank God, for we have received from Him whatever we have.
As St. Paul says “Who confers distinction upon you? What do you possess that you have not received? But if you have received it, why are you boasting as if you did not receive it?” (1Co 4:7). So, when we are conscious of having correctly behaved, it would do us good to repeat: “We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do” (Lk 17:10).
Modern men are undergoing a regrettable amnesia: we live and behave as if we should have been the generators of life and creators of the world. In direct contrast, though, Aristotle is to be admired. In his natural theology he ignores the concept of “creation” (concept known in those times only by Divine Revelation), but, at least, he had quite clear in his mind this world depended on the Divinity (the “Uncaused cause”). Saint John Paul II appeals to us to remember what we owe to God: “Man must honor his Creator by offering him, in praise and thanksgiving, whatever he has received from Him. Man cannot lose this sense of duty, which only he may recognize, amongst all other earthly realities.”
Besides, thinking of the everlasting life, our cooperation —He will not do anything without our permission nor without our effort! Consists of not disturbing the Holy Spirit's labor: to let God do it!; for saintliness is not “manufactured” by us, but granted by him, who is Master, Father and Leader. In any case, if we do believe we have something to offer, let us hasten to put it at the service of our fellow men: “The greatest among you must be your servant” (Mt 23:11).
Thoughts on Today's Gospel
“For what can be more wretched than a teacher, when the preservation of his disciples is, not to give heed to his life? Our actions will persuade them sooner than any discourse” (Saint John Chrysostom)
“The real novelty of the New Testament lies not so much in new ideas as in the figure of Christ himself, who gives flesh and blood to those concepts—an unprecedented realism” (Benedict XVI)
"By his obedience to Mary and Joseph, as well as by his humble work during the long years in Nazareth, Jesus gives us the example of holiness in the daily life of family and work" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 564 )
