The relatively short chapters of Loving Jesus are a series of talks on the Gospel of Matthew given by Fr. Mark Scott while he served as abbot of New Melleray Trappist monastery in Iowa.  Fr. Scott entered the Trappists in the 70s, studied at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, and has undertaken a variety of roles, including editor of Cistercian Studies Quarterly.

The book has retained something of its original oral quality and much of its monastic context.  Scott speaks as a monk to monks, reflecting regularly on the meaning of the Scriptures for their community and the monastic life in general.  He draws upon contemporary scholarship to engage in this reflection and is careful to try to read the passages accurately in historical context, creating a unique style that is N. T. Wright meets John Chrysostom.

In fact, his two most cited sources are St. Benedict, whose rule the Trappists follow, so no surprise there, and eminent New Testament scholar Ben F. Meyer.  He also relies upon John P. Meier, Pope Francis, and interestingly, Eleonore Stump, a philosopher influenced by Thomas Aquinas.  Among the patristics, he loves Gregory the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and especially Bernard of Clairvaux (who is patristic in thought and style, if not era).

Reading each chapter is a lot like praying lectio divina with a biblical commentary at hand.  Scott takes his time with certain words and phrases, analyzing and then teasing deeper meaning from them, while others he skips over entirely, as so often happens in lectio.  He is also adept at painting a picture of the setting for his readers, placing one personally within the narrative.

Loving Jesus covers only a part of Matthew, from 4:12 to 9:37, what Scott calls Matthew’s Introduction to Jesus.  He offers a wide variety of insights into the text, and as with his forebears, sometimes by letting his mind roam to make linguistic connections among passages.  For example, he writes, after some groundwork, “Jesus’ call, ‘Come after me,’ was like the word from the beginning when God created: ‘Let there be.’  And the brothers’ response of beginning to follow was their re-creation, their starting life anew along the freshwater lake that is called a sea, recalling the primal chaos that was the setting of the first creation” (26).

By the end of the book we have discovered the double meaning of the title, both participial and adjectival.  Through meditating on Matthew’s portrait of Jesus, we not only learn to love Jesus, but we also and first come to know Jesus the lover.  Why does Jesus so patiently and compassionately heal and teach and commune with the marginalized?  Because “he is loving Jesus” (179).  And so this book would make a fine supplement for a course on Matthew or the Gospels.  We too often focus on sources and historical context in an attempt to be scientific, whereas Scott models a faith-filled, communally-contextualized, reflective reading without sacrificing the scholarly, and thus helps bring to life again for us the greatest story ever told.