Ruth

- The Story of Ruth by Thomas Matthews Rooke

I saw a neat post at Dina's Jerusalem Hills daily photo blog that mentions Ruth, and it reminded me of a past homily by Rob Marsh SJ on Ruth. Here's the beginning of the homily ....

Friday Week 20 Year I
Rob Marsh SJ
August 19th, 2005

Gormless, uncouth, inept and ruthless… we’ve lost their kinder, gentler opposites gormful, couth, ept, … and ruthful – full of ruth. What does ruth mean? You have to make a leap from ‘ruthless’ somewhere into the territory of care and concern. Ruth is that piercing sorrow you feel when you can’t dodge someone else’s distress. It’s the ill-defined opposite of hardness of heart.

We need so badly to flesh out that tender term that its such a pity Ruth’s book gets such short shrift today and tomorrow. But those few lines on Ruth’s lips tell us a lot:

‘Wherever you go, I will go, wherever you live, I will live. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God’.

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