Today, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of Pope Pius X (1835-1914). He passed through all stages of pastoral life, from being a parish priest, a seminary professor, vicar-general, bishop etc. to becoming the Pope. He knew the weak spots in the church hierarchy. Therefore when Pius X was elected Pope in 1903, he began the reform in the Roman Curia, the recodification of the Canon Law, the rearrangement of the Divine Office so that the priests should recite the whole book of Psalms and the restoration of the Vulgate. (Philip Hughes 1974, A Short History of the Catholic Church, 8th ed., Burns & Oates, pp. 238-241) Pius X was a model priest, a model Pope. During his reign, the Catholic Church had to fight against Modernism as well as the thorny issues of state influences over church matters, especially in the French Church. Nowadays, the Chinese Church is facing this same grave problem.
Dear Lord, we praise You for Your giving us a holy Pope in times of troubles. May Your Church weather through all these difficulties unharmed. Amen.
Dear Lord, we praise You for Your giving us a holy Pope in times of troubles. May Your Church weather through all these difficulties unharmed. Amen.
Today, we read a bit of the book of Ruth which has only four chapters. Ruth is one of the four women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus as recorded inMatthew (Matthew 1:5). It is interesting to note that all these women were Gentiles. Ruth was a Moabite. The story began somewhere in the period of the judges.
In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons (Ruth 1:1).
If Bethlehem rings a bell in your head, congratulations. It is the home town of King David. So, this story is related to the ancestors of David. Famine forced the man and his family to move into Moab. The mother was called Naomi. After the death of the father, the two sons married Moabite girls. Ruth was the daughter-in-law of Naomi. After 10 years, the two sons died. All three women became widows. Naomi intended to return to Bethlehem. She sent the two daughters-in-law away so that they might remarry because they were still young to bear children. The two daughters-in-law refused to leave. Naomi gave the following reason to persuade them.
But Naomi said, "Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands?
Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons,
would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the LORD has gone forth against me." (Ruth 1:11-13)
Naomi was talking about the impossibility of applying the law of Levirate marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5-6) which stipulated that if a man died childless, his brother had the obligation to marry the widow to bear a male offspring for the deceased man. This spirit of this law was charity. In ancient times, widows were usually discriminated and thought to be cursed by God. With this law, widows still in their child-bearing age were taken care of. Naomi was not qualified because she had passed her child-bearing age. Even if she had had a husband and been able to bear a child, it would have taken too long for the son to grow up and marry Ruth. But Ruth refused to leave her.
But Ruth said, "Entreat me not to leave you or to return from following you; for where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God;
where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if even death parts me from you." (Ruth 1:16-17)
If you remember the famous Titanic quote "you jump I jump", by now, you should know that it owes Ruth the inspiration.
"You go I go and you live I live. Your people are my people and your God my God. You die I die and there will I be buried." Ruth, you are lovely and adorable.
Boaz, the Mr. Right appeared on the stage. Remarkably, his mother was Rahab (Matthew 1:5), probably the harlot of Jericho. Somehow, he was also a kinsman of the deceased men (Ruth 2:3). The story of Ruth continues to develop into a love story between Boaz and the young widow. Boaz knew how faithful Ruth had been to Naomi. So, he treated Ruth very well.
But Boaz answered her, "All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before.
The LORD recompense you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!" (Ruth 2:11-12)
When Ruth reported to Naomi how well Boaz treated her, Naomi immediately saw the solution to their difficult situation.
And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, "Blessed be he by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!" Na'omi also said to her, "The man is a relative of ours, one of our nearest kin." (Ruth 2:20)
In the end, Boaz gained the right to redeem the piece of land left behind by Naomi's husband. He also married Ruth and gave birth to a child. This was the institution of Goel (kinsman-redeemer) stipulated in Leviticus 25. God's kindness is the basis of this redeemer program.
Ruth gave birth to Obed who was the father of Jesse, the grandfather of David (Ruth 4:17). Ruth became the great-grandmother of King David because of her faithfulness to her mother-in-law. God recompenses the good you have done.
In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons (Ruth 1:1).
If Bethlehem rings a bell in your head, congratulations. It is the home town of King David. So, this story is related to the ancestors of David. Famine forced the man and his family to move into Moab. The mother was called Naomi. After the death of the father, the two sons married Moabite girls. Ruth was the daughter-in-law of Naomi. After 10 years, the two sons died. All three women became widows. Naomi intended to return to Bethlehem. She sent the two daughters-in-law away so that they might remarry because they were still young to bear children. The two daughters-in-law refused to leave. Naomi gave the following reason to persuade them.
But Naomi said, "Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands?
Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons,
would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the LORD has gone forth against me." (Ruth 1:11-13)
Naomi was talking about the impossibility of applying the law of Levirate marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5-6) which stipulated that if a man died childless, his brother had the obligation to marry the widow to bear a male offspring for the deceased man. This spirit of this law was charity. In ancient times, widows were usually discriminated and thought to be cursed by God. With this law, widows still in their child-bearing age were taken care of. Naomi was not qualified because she had passed her child-bearing age. Even if she had had a husband and been able to bear a child, it would have taken too long for the son to grow up and marry Ruth. But Ruth refused to leave her.
But Ruth said, "Entreat me not to leave you or to return from following you; for where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God;
where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if even death parts me from you." (Ruth 1:16-17)
If you remember the famous Titanic quote "you jump I jump", by now, you should know that it owes Ruth the inspiration.
"You go I go and you live I live. Your people are my people and your God my God. You die I die and there will I be buried." Ruth, you are lovely and adorable.
Boaz, the Mr. Right appeared on the stage. Remarkably, his mother was Rahab (Matthew 1:5), probably the harlot of Jericho. Somehow, he was also a kinsman of the deceased men (Ruth 2:3). The story of Ruth continues to develop into a love story between Boaz and the young widow. Boaz knew how faithful Ruth had been to Naomi. So, he treated Ruth very well.
But Boaz answered her, "All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before.
The LORD recompense you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!" (Ruth 2:11-12)
When Ruth reported to Naomi how well Boaz treated her, Naomi immediately saw the solution to their difficult situation.
And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, "Blessed be he by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!" Na'omi also said to her, "The man is a relative of ours, one of our nearest kin." (Ruth 2:20)
In the end, Boaz gained the right to redeem the piece of land left behind by Naomi's husband. He also married Ruth and gave birth to a child. This was the institution of Goel (kinsman-redeemer) stipulated in Leviticus 25. God's kindness is the basis of this redeemer program.
Ruth gave birth to Obed who was the father of Jesse, the grandfather of David (Ruth 4:17). Ruth became the great-grandmother of King David because of her faithfulness to her mother-in-law. God recompenses the good you have done.
Dear Lord, we praise You for Your kindness. You turn our sorrow into joy, our difficulty into blessing. Amen.
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