Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Ruth 2, 1-3.8-11.13-17
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 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.
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.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The chapter begins and ends with a conversation at home between Ruth and Noemi. In between there is a conversation of Ruth and Boaz. In this plot of friendship between Noemi and Ruth the Lord fulfils his salvation plan. We may say that the field of personal relationships, friendship and solidarity is a privileged one for God’s action. Ruth, in spite of being a woman and a foreign one at that, behaved in Boaz’s property as a tireless worker, with an absolutely extraordinary audacity. Not by chance was she like that; she was determined as a result of friendship. The link with Noemi was so strong that she took the initiative. Boaz was a rich and prestigious man, and noticed that foreign woman who behaved in such extraordinary way working on his properties. And even though a man usually goes out and searches for a woman, or at least wants to find a bride, in Ruth it is the opposite. Boaz told her that his servants were going to offer her drinks and that she could drink that water. He is the one who told her what he heard about her, what she did for Noemi. Boaz dealt with her in a different way from the beginning: he asked his servants to respect her and dealt with her as if she were already his wife. After she had been invited to stay, Ruth herself was amazed by Boaz’s interest, but above all by his speech. Boaz said to her: “How you left your father and mother and your native land ”, recalling the words of Abraham’s vocation: “a man leaves his father and his mother...” (Gen 2:24). And afterwards the support of God’s love: “the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge...” Ruth therefore goes back home to Noemi, who is still first in her affections and concerns. Before Ruth tells her the whole story, Noemi blesses the person who took notice of her, using a religious language that refers to God. Ruth however, corrects her and says it was Boaz. Noemi pretends not to grasp Ruth’s earthly point of view and continues to stress Ruth’s good fortune in the Lord’s perspective. Only afterward does she indicates the place Boaz has in her family and his function as go’el, or ransomer. When Noemi refers to God’s mercy for the living and the dead, she is thinking of Elimelech, her dead husband, and Kilion, Ruth’s husband, and together of the two of them, still alive.
Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!
For the sick, in memory of the dead, for peace
