Pope: the bond between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is blessed by God

In his Wednesday general audience, continuing the cycle on old age, Francis spoke about the relationship between generations in the family, taking his cue from the biblical book of Ruth. "Faith and love can make it possible to overcome common sense prejudices, which generate insuperable fractures."

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The bond between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law as "an alliance between generations that opens the future."  Pope Francis focused on this theme this morning at the Wednesday general audience in St. Peter's Square, where the pontiff met with groups of pilgrims and faithful from all over the world. The Pope, continuing the cycle of catechesis on old age, wanted to take inspiration from the book of Ruth, which he called "a jewel of the Bible."

"With regard to the Canticle of Canticles, the Book of Ruth is like the other panel in the diptych of nuptial love. Just as important, just as essential, it indeed celebrates the power and the poetry that must inhabit the bonds of generation, kinship, devotion and fidelity that involve the entire family constellation. And which even become capable, in the dramatic conjunctures in the life of a couple, of bringing an unimaginable power of love, able to relaunch hope and the future."

Francis spoke of the clichés about the bonds of kinship created by marriage, which see especially that between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law against this perspective. Only the inspiration of faith will be able to open a horizon of witness against the prejudices.

To explain his vision of the mother-in-law-daughter-in-law relationship, he took, in fact, the story of Noemi and her daughter-in-law Rut as an example. The elderly Noemi, in the grip of pessimism about her future, insists that her daughters-in-law - widows of her two children - abandon her. "Ruth resists this generous offer," Francis explained, "The bond that has been established between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law has been blessed by God. Thus Noemi, moved by Ruth's dedication, came out of her pessimism and encouraged her daughter-in-law to win a new husband in Israel. Noemi, who was in her old age, will know the joy of having a part in the generation of a new birth.

"See how many 'miracles' accompany the conversion of this elderly woman," the Pontiff emphasized, "She converts to the commitment to make herself available, with love, for the future of a generation wounded by loss and at risk of abandonment. Thus, faith and love can make it possible to overcome the prejudices of common sense, which generate insuperable fractures. "The mother-in-law overcomes her jealousy of her own son, who is a danger, by loving Rut's new bond; the women of Israel overcome their distrust of the stranger (and if the women do it, everyone will); the vulnerability of the lonely girl, faced with the power of the male, is reconciled with a bond full of love and respect." And it's all thanks to young Rut's faithfulness to a bond exposed to ethnic and religious prejudice.

"Today, the mother-in-law is a mythical character, who is always imagined as a bad figure, but she is the mother of your husband or wife," Francis said. "We think of when people say that the more distant the mother-in-law is, the better. But the mother-in-law is a mother, she is a grandmother." The pontiff recalled that the elderly, in fact, when they see their grandchildren, they regain vigor. "Review your relationship with your mothers-in-law: they have given motherhood to your spouse," the pope prayed and, addressing his mothers-in-law, then admonished, "And you mothers-in-law, be careful with your tongues."

For a tomorrow filled with blessings, it will be important for young people to open themselves to gratitude for what they have received and for old people to take the initiative to revive their future. "Let the young speak with the old and the old with the young: this bridge we must reestablish strong, because there is a current of happiness there," the pontiff concluded.

To Portuguese-speaking pilgrims he entrusted the renewed appeal for peace in Ukraine: "I ask you to persevere in unceasing prayer for peace. Let the weapons be silent, so that those who have the power to stop the war hear the cry of peace of all humanity".

Greeting the Polish faithful present in St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis recalled that today marks the eighth anniversary of the canonization of St. John Paul II, proclaimed saint along with Pope John XXIII on April 27, 2014: "Through his intercession, we ask to be faithful witnesses of Christ and his merciful love in the world, in the family and in the workplace."