Jesus is tested today by the Pharisees and, after going back and forth, Jesus reminds them of the two great commandments of the law: total love of God and love for my neighbor…as I love myself. Selfless, unconditional love through the ups-and-downs of lifeeven through rejection and betrayalthis is a tough sell in today’s conflicted and complicated world. Yet that is what Jesus teaches. To be sure none of us lives up to that invitation 100% each and every day…yet that is still what Jesus asks and invites.

Today’s first reading from the Book of Ruth gives us an example: the elderly Naomi is left alone with the Moabite woman Ruth. When Naomi gives Ruth permission to return to her own people, Ruth offers Naomi both loyalty and love in these beautiful words…often used today as a wedding song: “Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”

Where is our life-giving God inviting me to “go” today?

—The Jesuit prayer team