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Painting of Ruth in Boaz’s Field by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld 1828
Pope Francis general audience
Piazza San Pietro – Wednesday, 27 April 2022
Catechesis on Old Age: 7. Noemi, the alliance between generations that opens the future
Dear brothers and sisters,
Today we continue to reflect on the elderly, on grandparents, on old age, the word seems ugly but no, the old are great, they are beautiful! And today we will be inspired by the wonderful book of Ruth, a jewel of the Bible (see footnote below). Ruth’s parable illuminates the beauty of family bonds: generated by the couple’s relationship, but which go beyond the couple’s bond. Tiess of love capable of being just as strong, in which radiates the perfection of that polyhedron of fundamental affections that form the family grammar of love. This grammar brings lifeblood and generative wisdom to the whole of the relationships that build up the community. Compared to the Song of Songs, the book of Ruth is like the other table in the diptych (i.e. series of pictures) of nuptial love. Equally important, equally essential, it celebrates the power and poetry that must inhabit the bonds of generation, kinship, dedication and fidelity that envelop the entire constellation of the family. And they even become capable, in the dramatic conjunctures of the life of a couple, of bringing an unimaginable force of love, capable of relaunching their hope and their future.
We know that the clichés about the bonds of kinship created by marriage, especially that of the mother-in-law, that bond between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, speak against this perspective. But, precisely for this reason, the word of God becomes precious. The inspiration of faith can open up a horizon of witness against the most common prejudices, a precious horizon for the entire human community. I invite you to rediscover the book of Ruth! (it is in the footnote below). Especially in the meditation on love and in catechesis on the family.
This little book also contains a valuable lesson on the covenant of generations: where youth proves capable of restoring enthusiasm to the elderly – this is essential: when youth restores enthusiasm to the elderly – where old age proves itself capable of reopening the future for wounded youth. At first, the elderly Noemi, although moved by the affection of her daughters-in-law, widows of her two children, shows herself pessimistic about their fate within a people that is not theirs. So she affectionately encourages the young women to return to their families to rebuild their lives – these widowed women were young. She says, “I can’t do anything for you.” This already appears to be an act of love: the elderly woman, without a husband and without more children, insists that her daughters-in-law abandon her. However, it is also a kind of resignation: there is no possible future for foreign widows, without the protection of their husband. Ruth knows this and resists this generous offering. She does not want to go to her home.
The bond that was established between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law was blessed by God: Noemi cannot ask to be abandoned. At first, Noemi appears more resigned than happy with this offer: perhaps she thinks that this strange bond will increase the risk for both. In some cases, the tendency of the old to pessimism needs to be countered by the affectionate pressure of the young.
In fact, Noemi, moved by Ruth’s dedication, will come out of her pessimism and even take the initiative, opening up a new future for Ruth. She instructs and encourages Ruth, her son’s widow, to win a new husband in Israel. Booz, the candidate, shows his nobility, defending Ruth from the men in his employ. Unfortunately, it is a risk that still occurs today.
Ruth’s new marriage is celebrated and the worlds are once again at peace. The women of Israel tell Noemi that Ruth, the stranger, is worth “more than seven children” and that that marriage will be a “blessing of the Lord’. Noemi, who was full of bitterness and also said that her name is bitterness, in her old age will know the joy of having a part in the generation of a new birth. See how many “miracles” accompany the conversion of this elderly woman! She is converted to the commitment to make herself available, with love, for the future of a generation wounded by loss and at risk of abandonment. The fronts of recomposition are the same ones that, according to the probabilities drawn by common sense prejudices, should generate insurmountable fractures. Instead, faith and love allow them to be overcome: the mother-in-law overcomes jealousy for her own child, loving Ruth’s new bond; the women of Israel overcome distrust of the foreigner (and if women do, everyone will); the vulnerability of the lonely girl, in the face of the power of the male, is reconciled with a bond full of love and respect.
And all this because the young Ruth has stubbornly remained faithful to a bond exposed to ethnic and religious prejudice. And I take up what I said at the beginning, today the mother-in-law is a mythical character, the mother-in-law I do not say that we think like the devil but always think of her as a bad figure. But the mother-in-law is your husband’s mother, she’s your wife’s mother. We think today of this somewhat widespread feeling that the farther away the mother-in-law the better. No! She is a mother, she is elderly. One of the most beautiful things about grandmothers is seeing their grandchildren, when they have children. they live again! Take a good look at the relationship you have with your mothers-in-law: sometimes they are a bit special, but they have given you the motherhood of your spouse, they have given you everything. At least they must be made happy, so that they can carry on their old age with happiness. And if they have any defects, you have to help them to correct themselves. I also say to you mothers-in-law: be careful with your tongue, because the tongue is one of the ugliest sins of mothers-in-law, be careful!
And Ruth in this book accepts her mother-in-law and revives her and the elderly Noemi takes the initiative to reopen the future for Ruth, instead of just enjoying her support. If young people open themselves to gratitude for what they have received and the old take the initiative to relaunch their future, nothing can stop the flowering of God’s blessings among peoples! I recommend that young people talk to grandparents, that young people talk to the old, that the old talk to the young. We must re-establish this bridge strongly, there is a current of salvation, of happiness. May the Lord help us, by doing this, to grow in harmony in families, that constructive harmony that goes from the old to the youngest, that beautiful bridge that we must guard and look at.
Footnote:
THE BOOK OF RUTH
Chapter One
In the days when the Judges were governing, a famine occurred in the country and a certain man from Bethlehem of Judah went – he, his wife and his two sons — to live in the Plains of Moab. The man was called Elimelech, his wife Naomi and his two sons Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem of Judah. Going to the Plains of Moab, they settled there. Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she and her two sons were left. These married Moabite women: one was called Orpah and the other Ruth. They lived there for about ten years. Mahlon and Chilion then both died too, and Naomi was thus bereft of her two sons and her husband. She then decided to come back from the Plains of Moab with her daughters-in-law, having heard in the Plains of Moab that God had visited his people and given them food. So, with her daughters-in-law, she left the place where she was living and they took the road back to Judah. Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go back, each of you to your mother’s house. May Yahweh show you faithful love, as you have done to those who have died and to me. Yahweh grant that you may each find happiness with a husband!’ She then kissed them, but they began weeping loudly, and said, ‘No, we shall go back with you to your people.‘ ‘Go home, daughters,’ Naomi replied. ‘Why come with me? Have I any more sons in my womb to make husbands for you? Go home, daughters, go, for I am now too old to marry again. Even if I said, “I still have a hope: I shall take a husband this very night and shall bear more sons,” would you be prepared to wait for them until they were grown up? Would you refuse to marry for their sake? No, daughters, I am bitterly sorry for your sakes that the hand of Yahweh should have been raised against me.’ They started weeping loudly all over again; Orpah then kissed her mother-in-law and went back to her people. But Ruth stayed with her. Naomi then said, ‘Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. Go home, too; follow your sister-in-law.’ But Ruth said, ‘Do not press me to leave you and to stop going with you, for wherever you go, I shall go, wherever you live, I shall live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Where you die, I shall die and there I shall be buried. Let Yahweh bring unnameable ills on me and worse ills, too, if anything but death should part me from you!’ Seeing that Ruth was determined to go with her, Naomi said no more. The two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. Their arrival set the whole town astir, and the women said, ‘Can this be Naomi?’ To this she replied, ‘Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for Shaddai has made my lot bitter. I departed full, and Yahweh has brought me home empty. Why, then, call me Naomi, since Yahweh has pronounced against me and Shaddai has made me wretched?’ This was how Naomi came home with her daughter-in-law, Ruth the Moabitess, on returning from the Plains of Moab. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Chapter Two
Naomi had a kinsman on her husband’s side, well-to-do and of Elimelech’s clan. His name was Boaz. Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, ‘Let me go into the fields and glean ears of corn in the footsteps of some man who will look on me with favour.’ She replied, ‘Go, daughter.’ So she set out and went to glean in the fields behind the reapers. Chance led her to a plot of land belonging to Boaz of Elimelech’s clan. Boaz, as it happened, had just come from Bethlehem. ‘Yahweh be with you!’ he said to the reapers. ‘Yahweh bless you!’ they replied. Boaz said to a servant of his who was in charge of the reapers, ‘To whom does this young woman belong?’ And the servant in charge of the reapers replied, ‘The girl is the Moabitess, the one who came back with Naomi from the Plains of Moab. She said, “Please let me glean and pick up what falls from the sheaves behind the reapers.” Thus she came, and here she stayed, with hardly a rest from morning until now.’ Boaz said to Ruth, ‘Listen to me, daughter. You must not go gleaning in any other field. You must not go away from here. Stay close to my work-women. Keep your eyes on whatever part of the field they are reaping and follow behind. I have forbidden my men to molest you. And if you are thirsty, go to the pitchers and drink what the servants have drawn.’ Ruth fell on her face, prostrated herself and said, ‘How have I attracted your favour, for you to notice me, who am only a foreigner?’ Boaz replied, ‘I have been told all about the way you have behaved to your mother-in-law since your husband’s death, and how you left your own father and mother and the land where you were born to come to a people of whom you previously knew nothing. May Yahweh repay you for what you have done, and may you be richly rewarded by Yahweh, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!’ She said, ‘My lord, I hope you will always look on me with favour! You have comforted and encouraged me, though I am not even the equal of one of your work-women.’ When it was time to eat, Boaz said to her, ‘Come and eat some of this bread and dip your piece in the vinegar.’ Ruth sat down beside the reapers and Boaz made a heap of roasted grain for her; she ate till her hunger was satisfied, and she had some left over. When she had got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his work-people, ‘Let her glean among the sheaves themselves. Do not molest her. And be sure you pull a few ears of corn out of the bundles and drop them. Let her glean them, and do not scold her.’
So she gleaned in the field till evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned and it came to about a bushel of barley. Taking it with her, she went back to the town. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. Ruth also took out what she had kept after eating all she wanted, and gave that to her. Her mother-in-law said, ‘Where have you been gleaning today? Where have you been working? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!’ Ruth told her mother-in-law in whose field she had been working. ‘The name of the man with whom I have been working today’, she said, ‘is Boaz.’ Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, ‘May he be blessed by Yahweh who does not withhold his faithful love from living or dead! This man’, Naomi added, ‘is a close relation of ours. He is one of those who have the right of redemption over us.’ Ruth the Moabitess said to her mother-in-law, ‘He also said, “Stay with my work-people until they have finished my whole harvest.” ‘ Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, ‘It is better for you, daughter, to go with his work-women than to go to some other field where you might be ill-treated.’ So she stayed with Boaz’s work-women, and gleaned until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she went on living with her mother-in-law.
Chapter Three
Her mother-in-law Naomi then said, ‘Daughter, is it not my duty to see you happily settled? And Boaz, the man with whose work-women you were, is he not our kinsman? Tonight he will be winnowing the barley on the threshing-floor. So wash and perfume yourself, put on your cloak and go down to the threshing-floor. Don’t let him recognise you while he is still eating and drinking. But when he lies down, take note where he lies, then go and turn back the covering at his feet and lie down yourself. He will tell you what to do.’ Ruth said, ‘I shall do everything you tell me.’ So she went down to the threshing-floor and did everything her mother-in-law had told her. When Boaz had finished eating and drinking, he went off happily and lay down beside the pile of barley. Ruth then quietly went, turned back the covering at his feet and lay down. In the middle of the night, he woke up with a shock and looked about him; and there lying at his feet was a woman. ‘Who are you?’ he said; and she replied, ‘I am your servant Ruth. Spread the skirt of your cloak over your servant for you have the right of redemption over me.’ ‘May Yahweh bless you, daughter,’ he said, ‘for this second act of faithful love of yours is greater than the first, since you have not run after young men, poor or rich. Don’t be afraid, daughter, I shall do everything you ask, since the people at the gate of my town all know that you are a woman of great worth. But, though it is true that I have the right of redemption over you, you have a kinsman closer than myself. Stay here for tonight and, in the morning, if he wishes to exercise his right over you, very well, let him redeem you. But if he does not wish to do so, then as Yahweh lives, I shall redeem you. Lie here till morning.’ So she lay at his feet till morning, but got up before the hour when one man can recognise another; and he thought, ‘It must not be known that this woman came to the threshing-floor.’ He then said, ‘Let me have the cloak you are wearing, hold it out!’ She held it out while he put six measures of barley into it and then loaded it on to her; and off she went to the town. When Ruth got home, her mother-in-law asked her, ‘How did things go with you, daughter?’ She then told her everything that the man had done for her. ‘He gave me these six measures of barley and said, “You must not go home empty-handed to your mother-in-law.” ‘ Naomi said, ‘Do nothing, daughter, until you see how things have gone; I am sure he will not rest until he has settled the matter this very day.’
Chapter Four
Boaz, meanwhile, had gone up to the gate and sat down, and the relative of whom he had spoken then came by. Boaz said to him, ‘Here, my friend, come and sit down’; the man came and sat down. Boaz then picked out ten of the town’s elders and said, ‘Sit down here’; they sat down. Boaz then said to the man who had the right of redemption, ‘Naomi, who has come back from the Plains of Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother, Elimelech. I thought I should tell you about this and say, “Acquire it in the presence of the men who are sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you want to use your right of redemption, redeem it; if you do not, tell me so that I know, for I am the only person to redeem it besides yourself, and I myself come after you.” The man said, ‘I am willing to redeem it.’ Boaz then said, ‘The day you acquire the field from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the man who has died, to perpetuate the dead man’s name in his inheritance.’ The man with the right of redemption then said, ‘I cannot use my right of redemption without jeopardising my own inheritance. Since I cannot use my right of redemption, exercise the right yourself.’ Now, in former times, it was the custom in Israel to confirm a transaction in matters of redemption or inheritance by one of the parties taking off his sandal and giving it to the other. This was how agreements were ratified in Israel. So, when the man with the right of redemption said to Boaz, ‘Acquire it for yourself,’ he took off his sandal. Boaz then said to the elders and all the people there, ‘Today you are witnesses that from Naomi I acquire everything that used to belong to Elimelech, and everything that used to belong to Mahlon and Chilion and that I am also acquiring Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon’s widow, to be my wife, to perpetuate the dead man’s name in his inheritance, so that the dead man’s name will not be lost among his brothers and at the gate of his town. Today you are witnesses to this.‘
All the people at the gate said, ‘We are witnesses’; and the elders said, ‘May Yahweh make the woman about to enter your family like Rachel and Leah who together built up the House of Israel. Grow mighty in Ephrathah, be renowned in Bethlehem! And through the children Yahweh will give you by this young woman, may your family be like the family of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.’ So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. And when they came together, Yahweh made her conceive and she bore a son. And the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed be Yahweh who has not left you today without anyone to redeem you. May his name be praised in Israel! The child will be a comfort to you and the prop of your old age, for he has been born to the daughter- in-law who loves you and is more to you than seven sons.’
And Naomi, taking the child, held him to her breast; and she it was who looked after him. And the women of the neighbourhood gave him a name. ‘A son’, they said, ‘has been born to Naomi,’ and they called him Obed. This was the father of Jesse, the father of David. These are the descendants of Perez. Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.
PS
The Gospel of Matthew expressly mentions Ruth among Jesus’ ancestors
(Matthew 1:5 – Salmon fathered Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed fathered Jesse)
