Ferial readings: Ruth 1.1,3-6,14b-16,22; Psalm 146; Matthew 22.34-40
Readings for the memory: Isaiah 9.1-6; Psalm 113; Luke 1.26-38
Two of the women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus appear in today's liturgy. One is Ruth, spoken about in the first reading, and the other is Mary, the mother of Jesus, whose Queenship is celebrated today. We know that there is a special preparation of Mary through gifts of grace which enabled her to assent to God's call with a freedom and a purity unique to her. The preparation of Jesus in the generations of his human ancestors is not at all so free, not at all so pure.
As is often said, they are a family of flesh and blood. There is lots of blood on the hands of many of the kings who are mentioned. The women who appear all introduce some note of oddness or peculiarity into it. Tamar seduced her father in law Judah into an incestuous relationship. Rahab was a prostitute who facilitated the taking of Jericho by Joshua and then gave birth to Boaz, great-grandfather of King David. Bathsheba was seduced by David and her husband killed by him. Ruth is the only one to whom some scandal is not attached, she is a good woman, more than ordinarily good it seems.
What is odd about Ruth is that she was a Moabitess, a foreigner, an alien, a stranger to the land and people of Israel. So she contaminated the purity of the bloodline, becoming the great-grandmother of King David. In another way she purified the bloodline, bring a purity and grace to it, through her love of the family into which she married, and her acceptance of their faith in the Lord, the God of Israel.
We already see at work in Ruth the love of which Jesus speaks in today's gospel, a love for God and neighbour, and we know that anybody can be our neighbour, aliens, strangers and foreigners too. Ruth stands as a model of love and fidelity, she is simply a good person. Mary is the woman who comes at the climax of that genealogy, for it was she who gave birth to Jesus who is the Christ. There is something unusual about her also, namely her unconditional freedom in hearing the voice of the Lord and believing what that voice asked and promised.
This very ordinary history of saints and sinners provides the context for the conception and birth of Jesus. Ruth foreshadows the goodness and purity of Mary but it is Mary who stands at the apex, at Bethlehem and Cana, at Calvary and Pentecost, faithful and loving like Ruth but to the point of participating fully in her Son's paschal mystery. Mary shares in all the moments of that mystery - she is the New Eve, the Woman of the New Creation, the Mother of the Church - even to the point of sharing already in His Resurrection (as we celebrated last week), even to the point of taking her place with Him in the heavenly kingdom being honoured in the Church as Queen of Heaven and of Earth.
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