Ruth: A Type of Christ

 Reflection on Today's Readings, Friday of 20th Week in Ordinary Time, Year 1, August 20th, 2021
Texts: Ruth1:1.3-6.14b-16.22; Ps. 146:5-10; Mtt. 22:34-40
We are told, in today's gospel reading, what the great commandment is. Jesus says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  Today's first reading shows in life experience what it means to love with one's whole heart, and with one's whole soul, and with one's whole mind. We find this in the life of Ruth. We see in her life that the kind of love Jesus puts before us is unconditional love. We are to love God unconditionally.
Ruth was a good example of one who had the wedding garment but had not yet the grace to participate in the wedding banquet until her marriage to Naomi's son. She had what it took to participate in the wedding banquet, which is the virtue of total self-giving in love; the giving of self without reservation. The spousal love of Ruth was outstanding and beyond the conventional. I must say that her decision to follow Naomi was not based on reason, for she had nothing to cling on to in Naomi. What was available to share in the life of Naomi was pain and suffering. She followed a widow who could not defend herself. Widows are often objects of oppression and maltreatment. As a widow, Naomi's condition was worse, for she had no child that could earn her right to her husband's property. Perhaps, Ruth was human enough to grasp the condition of Naomi and so decided to ameliorate her pain and suffering by giving herself. In this way we can see in Ruth the image of Jesus Christ. What we all need to participate in the Kingdom of heaven is the image of Christ. The image of Christ is our wedding garment. This image is total self-giving. Total self-giving manifests in love without reservation.
Following Naomi, Ruth was ready to forfeit her own future. The husband she married to was dead and had no hope of experiencing the joy of being a mother. Following Naomi, she forwent her future. It is not easy for a woman to forgo the desire to give birth. In the culture of that time to die childless was to have not existed at all. Child was a proof of one's existence. To die childless was to have been unfortunate. Ruth was truly a type of Christ.
What was displayed by Ruth was a childlike attitude; she thought neither of suffering nor future. Suffering and fear of future are often what damage our relationship with God. We cannot love God wholeheartedly if we are not ready to entrust our future into His hand and pay no regards to suffering and pain. It is said, "For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope" (Jer. 29:11). We must be ready to share from the suffering of Christ to share in His glory. St. Paul says, "and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him" (Rom. 8:17).
St. Bernard, whose memorial is today, says, "Love is self-sufficient; it is pleasing to itself and on its own account. Love is its own payment, its own reward." He adds, "When God loves, he wishes only to be loved in return; assuredly he loves for no other purpose than to be loved. He knows that those who love him are happy in their love." God demands that we love Him because He loves and knows that our happiness is in loving Him. When we love we will be loved, for love is its own payment, its own reward. God will definitely reward us for our love.
St. Bernard was born near Dijon in France in the year 1090 and brought up religiously. He joined Cistercians. Being ordered to establish a monastery, he established the monastery of Clairvaux and became the Abbot. He was outstanding in leading the monks in virtues by his work and example. He was a good adviser both to the state and the Church: he advised kings, bishops and popes. He wrote treatises, sermons and many letters. He was a preacher of crusade. Paul Burns says, "His writings  show him to be profound mystic, convinced that contemplation must result in action: "love in action" (which might be a fitting motto for his teaching), as exemplified in the life and death of Jesus, should bring us closer to God and therefore reconcile what we are with what we ought to be" (Butler's Saint for the Day, 2007).

Lord our God, we thank You for Your love towards us, enlarge and strengthen our hearts to love You wholly. Amen

Fr. Andrew  Olowomuke