Saturday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 424

Boaz answered her:
"I have had a complete account of what you have done for your mother-in-law after your husband's death; you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth,
and have come to a people whom you did not know previously."


Boaz appears to be an older man in the Book of Ruth, one who owns property and commands considerable respect among the younger villagers. Apparently unmarried, he admires the young woman Ruth for her devotion to Naomi, her mother-in-law. When he commands the young men to treat the attractive stranger with respect and not to harass her as she gleans from his fields, he expects obedience, and gets it. My father taught me similar principles. (His birthday was today. God rest his soul.)
     The human race must struggle until the end of time to balance the needs, expectations, hopes and rights of women and men. Sometimes we feel like two different species with a troubled but symbiotic relationship; at other times we agree one hundred percent and cannot imagine a problem between us.
     There is no golden standard of how men and women should relate. Cultures create different rules and different expectations and no culture gets it right. Not even close! History gives us innumerable examples of how it should not be but only vague suggestions of how it should be. I am always suspicious when I hear that in ancient times this or that nationality had it right. Recently it's the Celts, during that mythic age before the Viking and Norman invasions.
     We comb the scriptures looking for direction and we examine Jesus' interaction with women. Although he often rebuked men, especially powerful men in the Pharisaic, Sadducee and Herodian parties, he was consistently kind to women. The Jewish culture of his day did not accord women many rights; the Greek and Roman cultures were more generous. Jewish women could not even inherit their husband's property; widowed, they must depend upon their sons or brothers-in-law, or return to their own families. A woman might live in comfort on one day; and abject poverty, the next.
     Jesus did not challenge those standards; he was not a social reformer. But he was more than civil with women. Many followed him, apparently as disciples. Some sponsored him financially. (The Gospels make no mention of financial support from men.) He sometimes defended those who were publicly rebuked; and he sometimes engaged in personal conversation without chaperones from her family or his disciples.
     When Jesus banned divorce among his disciples, despite Moses' permitting it, he maintained the Jewish tradition of viewing marriage as an icon of God's covenant. As God loves his people so should husbands love their wives. In a society where an abandoned wife had no hope of remarriage, lifelong fidelity was her only protection. But his teaching was not to protect women; it was to maintain the Sacrament which had bound Adam and Eve together despite their infidelity. Divorce is not an option; in the long run nothing good can come of broken vows.
     When Boaz decided to marry Ruth he certainly did not intend a temporary arrangement until a younger, more desirable woman happened into his vineyard.
     On one occasion, Jesus was asked about a fictional woman who survives seven husbands, "Whose wife will she be in the resurrection?" He did not answer, "Whomever she chooses!" I don't suppose that answer occurred to him; it would have caused a profound effect in the world of his day.
     Our biological sciences insist that the similarities of women and men are greater than the differences; and that many differences are only apparent. But biology cannot answer every question; science is only another cultural institution grounded in philosophical principles of human origin. It persuades only those who are already persuaded.
     And so we turn to the Spirit of Jesus to guide our interactions.  The Bible provides inspiration but few directives. The better choice is the honest, courageous, prayerful, affectionate, difficult and endless conversation we must have with one another.