How close am I to the salvific design of God?

WORD 2day: Friday, 20th week in Ordinary time

August 20, 2021: Ruth 1:1,3-6,14-16,22; Matthew 22: 34-40

"Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live; Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God." I remember once, years ago, when I quoted these verses to a group of my youngsters...one spontaneously burst out saying, "what romantic lines!" I had to explain to them with the context, and convince them that it was a daughter in law saying those words to a mother in law, and that too, after the husband-son, had died! A funny experience to recall, but the reflection remains afresh and applicable till date.

We pick and choose people to love - Ruth could have easily walked her way home back to Moab! She was not a hebrew woman, nor was she anymore indebted to her dead husband's mother! In fact, she had a precedence, as her co-sister Orpah had just left at the suggestion of the mother in law. No one would have blamed Ruth for it, she being still a young woman with her whole life in front of her. But if she had done it, we would not be reflecting about Ruth today, as she would not have got into the salvation history, as shining as she does now!

What makes her part of the salvation history - not wars won for the hebrews, not splendid deeds as great judges and prophets, but a choice made in true love! It is true love that made her enter the pages of the History of Salvation. That is exactly what Jesus seems to be telling us in the Gospel: the greatest of all commandments, the most absolute of all criteria to belong to God and to be part of salvific design of God, is the command of Love!

And a true Christian love does not pick and choose whom to love and whom not to... it is a decision to love and to love everyone with a deep sense of genuine commitment. Ruth manifested that capacity and became part of the salvation plan of God. How close are we to get into the salvific design of God?