Friday of the 20th Week of Ordinary Time
My students like to think that church and all that “religion stuff” doesn’t have much of an effect on their “real lives”. Sure, they go to mass on Sunday for an hour but the rest of the week, they don’t need it. They are in the midst of a culture war – video games and hanging out with friends are far more enticing than going to Mass. Indeed, lots of Catholics like to think that all this church stuff doesn’t really affect me and my life as a Christian (not really).
Today’s scriptures are about culture wars, too. In the first reading (Ruth 1:1, 3-6, 14b-16, 22), we are introduced to the characters of Ruth, Naomi, and their husbands. There are three significant points to lift up in this passage. First, Naomi and her husband and sons have had to leave behind the land God gave them, to enter Moab. If you have been following along with the scripture passages this summer, you know that getting to the promised land of Canaan was difficult in the first place. How much more wrenching, then, to have to leave it behind. But second, Naomi’s sons marry Moabite women, not Jews. That means her sons have married foreigners, people who are not always looked upon with favor in the Bible. In addition, Naomi becomes a widow, a position of hardship in Biblical times, especially since she is now without her sons as well. Naomi has no one to look after her and care about her welfare.
Jesus’ words in the second reading (Matthew 22:34-40) lend some further clarity to the first reading at this point. He is asked a question about what is the most important commandment in the Old Testament (the law). Jesus names two, quoting both of them from Deuteronomy – love God and love neighbor. But who is a neighbor? Is it one’s fellow Jews (or, for us, fellow Christians)? Is it just family members?
Ruth and Naomi demonstrate that neighborliness goes beyond either of these. Naomi demonstrates love for Ruth in attempting to send her back to her own family, since it was the male heads of households responsible for female members. Naomi doesn’t count as a family member, then. But it is Ruth, the stranger, the one who has not grown up Jewish, who gives the best account of love – she follows Naomi, despite lack of family ties, despite loss of culture, despite the two of them being two poor lonely women on the road together. Ruth demonstrates courageous love, against cultural norms.
Now, here’s the punch line, for those who might not know it: Ruth eventually marries Naomi’s relative Boaz, and they are, in turn, direct ancestors of Jesus. We could almost say that without Ruth and Ruth’s love, there is no Jesus.
The Jesus culture (His words, thoughts and actions) is a counter-culture. In any way that we can represent the culture of Jesus wherever we are today will help to counter those aspects of our culture that need transformation. And we know that our society could do with some transformation. You and I can be agents of a culture change.
- Jana M. Bennett & Fr. Satish Joseph