Saturday, August 25, 2007

Saturday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time


Saint Louis (IX, Capet)
Saint Joseph of Calasanz, priest

Biographical Information about St. Louis[1]
Biographical Information about St. Joseph of Calasanz[2]

Readings for Saturday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time[3]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible

Commentary:

Reading 1 Ru 2:1-3, 8-11; 4:13-17

The Old Testament readings continue to trace God’s relationship with the Hebrew people. We are given a selection from the Book of Ruth that occurred around the same time as the Judges from which we have been hearing for the past week. This story celebrates the piety and fidelity of Ruth, a Moabite (non-Hebrew) who becomes attached to Israel through marriage. Out of that union we find the beginnings of King David’s line and hence the line of Jesus in Bethlehem.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1b-2, 3, 4, 5
R. See how the Lord blesses those who fear him.

Supporting the pleasure God takes in the fidelity shown in the reading from Ruth, this hymn of praise extols the virtuous wife and the role she has in the home. It continues, celebrating the faithful family.

Gospel Mt 23:1-12

St. Matthew uses Jesus' teaching about the leaders of the Jewish faith as counter-examples of what the leaders of the Christian faith must be like. The scribes and Pharisees, lead from the authority given by the Temple. According to the Gospel, they did not practice what they taught and performed their worship for others to see rather than out of true faith and worship of God.

The passage concludes saying that the true leader of the faith must be first the servant of others, as Jesus himself came to serve, not to be served. The final line of the passage is a summary; “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Reflection:

We have our choice of examples of faith today. We can begin with St. Louis (IX) who is considered by the Church to be model of the Christian secular ruler. As described in the Gospel, he was a servant of his people unlike so many of his contemporaries who reveled in the power of the monarchy.

We can look also at Ruth from the Old Testament Reading. At the beginning of her story, her first husband, one of Naomi’s sons, died. Naomi’s husband and other son also died leaving Naomi with two daughters in-law and no male heirs to take care of them. She left the plateau of the Moabites to return to her own people, having first gone to that place to flee a famine. She encouraged Ruth and her other daughter in-law to stay with their own people because she had neither a way to support them nor any prospects for them. One daughter in-law, Orpah, did return, but Ruth stayed with Naomi proclaiming “"Do not ask me to abandon or forsake you! For wherever you go I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge, your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”

Out of this act of love and faith, the ancestry of King David is initiated as we hear in the selection presented today, Ruth ends up marrying Boaz. From that union a son, Obed, is born. He became the father of Jesse, the father of David. From David’s line comes our Lord and Savior Jesus. God’s plan is fulfilled out of the faithful witness of a foreigner.


Our lesson from these examples (and we have not even touched upon St. Joseph of Calasanz, patron of religious schools and students) is that our faithfulness to the teachings of Jesus are to be for His glory, not our own. Second, we must see that our own calling is not a way to achieve personal ends, but rather as part of God’s plan for the salvation of all. We find a tall order for ourselves mixed among these wonderful examples of faith.

Pax

[1] The first picture is St. Louis of France by El Greco, 1587-97
[2] The second picture is The Last Communion of St. Joseph of Calasanz by Francisco de Goya, 1819
[3] After Links to Readings Expire

No comments: