Loyalty and Love

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today, Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, invite us to examine the role of loyalty in following the Great Commandment of Love.

Loyalty and Life

The Reading from the Book of Ruth begins the story of Naomi in Moab.

* [1:1–2] Back in the time of the judges: the story looks back three generations before King David (4:17) into the time of the tribal confederation described in the Book of Judges. David’s Moabite connections are implied in 1 Sm 22:3–4. Bethlehem of Judah: Bethlehem, a town in which part of the Judean clan-division called Ephrathah lived; cf. 1 Chr 2:50–51; 4:4; Mi 5:1. Jos 19:15 mentions a different Bethlehem in the north. The plateau of Moab: on the east side of the Jordan valley rift, where the hills facing west get more rain, and where agricultural conditions differ from those in Judah. Ephrathites: a reminder of David’s origins; cf. Mi 5:1.

* [1:5] Boys: the way the storyteller chooses certain words as guides is shown here; “boy” will not appear again until 4:16.

* [1:6] Had seen to his people’s needs: lit., “had visited his people.

* [1:16–17] Ruth’s adherence to her mother-in-law in 1:14 is now expressed in a profound oath of loyalty, culminating in a formulary found frequently in Samuel and Kings; cf. especially 1 Sm 20:13. Even death: burial in Naomi’s family tomb means that not even death will separate them. (Ruth, CHAPTER 1 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 146 proclaims there is no other source of strength except the merciful God..

* [Psalm 146] A hymn of someone who has learned there is no other source of strength except the merciful God. Only God, not mortal human beings (Ps 146:3–4), can help vulnerable and oppressed people (Ps 146:5–9). The first of the five hymns that conclude the Psalter. (Psalms, PSALM 146 | USCCB, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus identifies The Greatest Commandment.

* [22:34–40] The Marcan parallel (Mk 12:28–34) is an exchange between Jesus and a scribe who is impressed by the way in which Jesus has conducted himself in the previous controversy (Mk 12:28), who compliments him for the answer he gives him (Mk 12:32), and who is said by Jesus to be “not far from the kingdom of God” (Mk 12:34). Matthew has sharpened that scene. The questioner, as the representative of other Pharisees, tests Jesus by his question (Mt 22:34–35), and both his reaction to Jesus’ reply and Jesus’ commendation of him are lacking.

* [22:35] [A scholar of the law]: meaning “scribe.” Although this reading is supported by the vast majority of textual witnesses, it is the only time that the Greek word so translated occurs in Matthew. It is relatively frequent in Luke, and there is reason to think that it may have been added here by a copyist since it occurs in the Lucan parallel (Lk 10:25–28). Tested: see note on Mt 19:3.

* [22:36] For the devout Jew all the commandments were to be kept with equal care, but there is evidence of preoccupation in Jewish sources with the question put to Jesus.

* [22:37–38] Cf. Dt 6:5. Matthew omits the first part of Mark’s fuller quotation (Mk 12:29; Dt 6:4–5), probably because he considered its monotheistic emphasis needless for his church. The love of God must engage the total person (heart, soul, mind).

* [22:39] Jesus goes beyond the extent of the question put to him and joins to the greatest and the first commandment a second, that of love of neighbor, Lv 19:18; see note on Mt 19:18–19. This combination of the two commandments may already have been made in Judaism.

* [22:40] The double commandment is the source from which the whole law and the prophets are derived. (Matthew, CHAPTER 22 | USCCB, n.d.)

Carol Zuegner comments that it is so simple. Love your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. Love your neighbor as yourself. But we never make it simple. We want control. We want exceptions.

There aren’t exceptions. If we are to find God in all things, we have to reach inside of ourselves and be that better person we can be all the time. Not just when it’s convenient or easy or makes me feel good or lets other people see what a good person I am. Does this mean I will never be impatient or short with someone? Probably not. Does this commandment mean that I should think every day about ways that I can love my God with all my heart and all my soul and all my mind by living out that second rule. No exceptions. No whining. No it’s-not-my-turn thoughts. 

My prayer is to let me be aware of these moments every day where I love my neighbor, where I can send ripples of love and care out into the world. No exceptions. (Zuegner, 2025)

Don Schwager quotes “Loving God with heart, mind, and soul,” by Origen of Alexandria (185-254 AD).

"Worthy is he, confirmed in all his gifts, who exults in the wisdom of God, having a heart full of the love of God, and a soul completely enlightened by the lamp of knowledge and a mind filled with the word of God. It follows then that all such gifts truly come from God. He would understand that all the law and the prophets are in some way a part of the wisdom and knowledge of God. He would understand that all the law and the prophets depend upon and adhere to the principle of the love of the Lord God and of neighbor and that the perfection of piety consists in love." (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Ruth 1:1, 3-6, 14-16, 22 comments that we have all been in situations when we’ve had to choose a path that is compassionate and yet costly.

It can be hard to see situations like these as invitations from the Lord. But sometimes that’s exactly what they are. They give us the chance to imitate Jesus’ love and loyalty. They help us say no to selfishness. And they offer opportunities for healing and reconciliation. In many cases, they open the door for God to work wonders in our hearts.

So don’t reject these invitations out of hand. You never know how saying yes might change your history!

“Lord, give me the strength and wisdom to choose the path of costly compassion when it arises before me.” (Meditation on Ruth 1:1, 3-6, 14-16, 22, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler reflects on the texts of today. The reading from Ruth is the story of a Moabite, a people hated by the Israelites, named Ruth, who shows great loyalty to Naomi. She becomes known as a virtuous ancestor of David. Jesus recites the Commandment of love of God and neighbour. Friar Jude notes that this involves intelligence, persecution, and possessions in loving God, a vertical dimension, and love of our neighbour as the horizontal dimension.

Cynthia Bourgeault explains how understanding the ancient meaning of the word passion can help us gain emotional equilibrium. The passions are really stuck emotions, revolving around themselves to generate drama. She cites a great teaching from the 4th-century spiritual teacher, Evagrius, the first real spiritual psychologist of the Christian West.

Once it becomes a passion and it’s stuck to your story, it can do nothing else but churn up more emotion, which then goes down into your physical body and steals your energy of being. Evagrius’ advice is that you have to learn to nip the thought in the bud before it becomes a passion. It’s a kind of wonderful combination of what we might call witnessing presence or practice, developing the capacity to see, combined with kenosis, the willingness to let go of the satisfaction you get from your drama. That is what clears the radar screen.   

The core practice for cleansing and restoring the heart to its organ of spiritual seeing, becomes supremely, in Christianity, the path of kenosis, of letting go. The seeing will come, but the real heart of working with emotion is the willingness to let go, to sacrifice your personal drama, letting go at that level, so that you can begin to see with a pure heart.  (Bourgeault, n.d.)  

We are assisted by the Spirit to open our practice of the Great Commandment of Love to include all people.

References

Bourgeault, C. (n.d.). Purifying the Heart. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved August 22, 2025, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/purifying-the-heart/ 

Matthew, CHAPTER 22 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved August 22, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/22?34 

Meditation on Ruth 1:1, 3-6, 14-16, 22. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved August 22, 2025, from https://wau.org/meditations/?utm_content=buffer5c902&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer 

Psalms, PSALM 146 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved August 22, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/146?5 

Ruth, CHAPTER 1 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved August 22, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/ruth/1?1 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). What Is the Greatest Rule of Life? Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved August 22, 2025, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2025&date=aug22 

Zuegner, C. (2025, August 22). Daily Reflection August 22, 2025 | Creighton Online Ministries. Creighton Online Ministries. Retrieved August 22, 2025, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-august-22-2025 

Love unites

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today assert the power of Love to unite all people in relationship as neighbours.

Neighbours gather

The Book of Ruth tells of the love that overcomes long standing tribal hatred.

* [1:1–2] Back in the time of the judges: the story looks back three generations before King David (4:17) into the time of the tribal confederation described in the Book of Judges. David’s Moabite connections are implied in 1 Sm 22:3–4. Bethlehem of Judah: Bethlehem, a town in which part of the Judean clan-division called Ephrathah lived; cf. 1 Chr 2:50–51; 4:4; Mi 5:1. Jos 19:15 mentions a different Bethlehem in the north. The plateau of Moab: on the east side of the Jordan valley rift, where the hills facing west get more rain, and where agricultural conditions differ from those in Judah. Ephrathites: a reminder of David’s origins; cf. Mi 5:1.1 

Psalm 146 proclaims there is no other source of strength except the merciful God.

* [Psalm 146] A hymn of someone who has learned there is no other source of strength except the merciful God. Only God, not mortal human beings (Ps 146:3–4), can help vulnerable and oppressed people (Ps 146:5–9). The first of the five hymns that conclude the Psalter.2 

In the Gospel from Matthew, Jesus, underlines Love in his presentation of the Greatest Commandment.

* [22:37–38] Cf. Dt 6:5. Matthew omits the first part of Mark’s fuller quotation (Mk 12:29; Dt 6:4–5), probably because he considered its monotheistic emphasis needless for his church. The love of God must engage the total person (heart, soul, mind).
* [22:39] Jesus goes beyond the extent of the question put to him and joins to the greatest and the first commandment a second, that of love of neighbor, Lv 19:18; see note on Mt 19:18–19. This combination of the two commandments may already have been made in Judaism.3

Tamora Whitney shares her experience that family is not just who shares your blood, it’s also who shares your space and your experience and your love.

When I married Gordi I got his family too, and my life is richer because of that. And I’m glad that even though I lost him, I still have in my life people who knew him and loved him and we share that. Naomi and Ruth are family by marriage and have a shared connection of love. But we need an even broader definition of family. Loving our neighbor as ourselves makes the whole world our family and we should treat all our brothers and sisters with love.4 

Don Schwager quotes “Loving God with heart, mind, and soul,” by Origen of Alexandria (185-254 AD).

"Worthy is he, confirmed in all his gifts, who exults in the wisdom of God, having a heart full of the love of God, and a soul completely enlightened by the lamp of knowledge and a mind filled with the word of God. It follows then that all such gifts truly come from God. He would understand that all the law and the prophets are in some way a part of the wisdom and knowledge of God. He would understand that all the law and the prophets depend upon and adhere to the principle of the love of the Lord God and of neighbor and that the perfection of piety consists in love." (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 13)5 

The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 22:34-40 asserts that we love God by proclaiming that he—not forms of escape like alcohol, drugs, or pornography—is strong enough to deliver and restore us. We love him as we trust that God is just as willing to bring us out of patterns of sin or indifference as he was to bring the chosen people out of Egypt.

Let the knowledge of this love fill your heart. Let it move you to tell him about your love in return. Set aside the phone, computer, laundry, or bills to pray and give thanks for all the ways God has shown his love to you. As you praise him for his kindness and goodness, you are opening yourself to receive even more of his love.
And how do we love our neighbors? As God’s love fills us, it will also flow out of us. It will expand our hearts and increase our capacity to love more humbly and more fully.
More than just performing acts of service, you love your neighbors by honoring and respecting them. You love by restraining angry words or lustful and insulting thoughts. You look at people the way God sees them, with the same love that he showers on you.6 

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, insists that to create peaceful change, we must begin by remembering who we are in God. The following came out of a recent meeting of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative: Nonviolence is the universal ethic at the heart of creation.

Jesus lived and proclaimed this universal ethic of nonviolence: a paradigm of the fullness of life putting love into action, returning good for evil, rejecting violence and killing, and nurturing a just, peaceful, sustainable, and reconciled world. It springs from his foundational understanding of God and of the nonviolent life that God calls us to live: to make peace with one another; to resist the violence and injustice that threaten or destroy this peace; and to foster a world where the fullness of peace is the birthright of all. Jesus showed us how to live this way of faithful nonviolence, even in the midst of violence and oppression, by calling us to love our enemies, to not kill, to put down the sword, and to respond actively to the cry of the poor.7 

The vertical and horizontal aspects of our Love are the foundation of our strength, generosity, and nonviolence.

References

1	(n.d.). Ruth, chapter 1 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved August 23, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/ruth/1
2	(n.d.). Psalms, chapter 146 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved August 23, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/psalms/146
3	(n.d.). Matthew, chapter 22 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved August 23, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/22
4	(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections .... Retrieved August 23, 2019, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
5	(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved August 23, 2019, from https://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
6	(n.d.). Saint Rose of Lima, Virgin (Optional Memorial) - Mass Readings and .... Retrieved August 23, 2019, from https://wau.org/meditations/2019/08/23/
7	(2019, August 23). A Universal Ethic of Nonviolence — Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved August 23, 2019, from https://cac.org/a-universal-ethic-of-nonviolence-2019-08-23/

Outside the group some help with humility