TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
9 OCTOBER 2016
The
parables of Jesus speak to our imaginations.
In today’s parable, Jesus invites us to imagine a poor widow with no
power pestering an unjust judge with lots of power. There is nothing good about this judge, since
he has no respect for God or for anyone else.
But, this widow keeps pestering him until he finally gives in to
her. He rules in her favor, not because
there is anything good about him, but because he is afraid that she will beat
him up! Those who heard this parable
from the mouth of Jesus must have laughed.
This
parable is about persistence. The widow
succeeds, because she is persistent and will not quit. But we cannot imagine that God grants our
requests only when he gets tired of hearing from us. Unlike the unjust judge, God is love and complete
goodness. We do not change God’s mind
through our persistence in prayer.
Instead, persistent prayer changes us!
If we continue to bring our needs persistently in prayer before God and
continue to trust in God’s love for us, our prayer will open us more completely
to the way God looks at things. Once we
become more aware of God’s will and plan for the world, persistent prayer
brings a deeper assurance that justice will eventually triumph. The battle between good and evil has already
been won by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Like Moses, we raise our hands in prayer
confident of that victory. But, we tend
to get discouraged when we experience the effects of sin and evil. We need to support one another in prayer and
trust in the power of that prayer, just as Aaron supported Moses and kept his
hands raised in prayer. The battle won
by Jesus Christ over sin and death will triumph, just as Joshua and his army
defeated the forces of Amalek.
There is
another way to look at this parable.
Instead of seeing God as the unjust judge, we can see God as the poor
widow. If God is the poor widow, then we
become the unjust judge. God persistently
pursues us to draw us more closely to him and make us more faithful and
intentional disciples. That is what
Saint Paul says to his friend, Timothy.
The Lord first pursued Timothy through the faith of his mother and
grandmother. When he passed through the
waters of baptism, he was incorporated into the mystery of Jesus Christ. The Lord continued to pursue him when Paul
laid hands on him and appointed him as leader of the Christian community. He became discouraged in that role. So, Paul tells Timothy to read the Scriptures
and preach their truth. Just as the Lord
has been persistent in forming him as an intentional disciple, Timothy must
persist in trusting that God is in charge.
The Lord is
persistent in pursuing us. He has
incorporated us to himself when we were baptized. If we look closely at the events of our
lives, we can see how the Lord pursues us to take our baptismal promises
seriously. He speaks to us in his Word
at this Mass and when we open the Scriptures in our private prayers. He feeds us with his Body and Blood in the
Eucharist. He uses the ordinary
experiences of our lives to form us into more intentional disciples. He pursues us though retreats like Christ Renews His Parish and through
involvement with various ministries in the parish to become more intentional
disciples. He never gives up on us,
because he wants us to know the fullness of his victory over sin and death in
the New and Eternal Jerusalem.
It is sometimes
tempting to give up, especially when things are not going well, or when it
seems that the Lord does not answer our prayers. The Lord continues to persistently pursue us
at every level. He invites us to pray
with persistence in response, trusting that the victory has been won and will
be fully realized in God’s time.
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