Word to the Wise
Friday, August 22, 2025 - Friday in the 20th Week in Ordinary Time
[Ruth 1:1, 3-6, 14b-16, 22 and Matt 22:34-40]"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." [Ruth] "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments." [Matthew]
AUGUST 22 QUEENSHIP OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
The words of love and friendship spoken by Ruth to her mother-in-law, Naomi, are both a description and a challenge! When Jesus speaks of love of God and neighbor, the same challenge is given. How can one love in such a deep and non-romantic way? Jesus links love of God and neighbor. The sacrament of matrimony is meant to reflect this, but matrimony is not the only form of friendship. St. Thomas Aquinas uses the image of human friendship to describe the best relationship between a human person and God. Perhaps this is captured in another well known line attributed to Victor Hugo in Les Miserables: "To love another person is to see the face of God."
The First Letter of John (1 John 4:20) states: "If anyone says, 'I love God,' but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen." Love is therefore incarnate and not an abstraction. It does not require geographic physical closeness. Some of my closest personal friends live far from me geographically. (Thank God for "Facetime, etc.!) One way we can determine how we love God is to ask about our relationship to other people! Although we cannot be "best friends" with everyone we meet, our relationship to our best friends should radiate God's love and influence the way we treat those who are less "close" or strangers. True friendship is a gift from God to enable us to love both God and neighbor. Be sure to thank your friends for their love that can enable you to love God!! AMEN