October 16^th 2016.Twenty-ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Luke 18:1-8

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL: Luke 18:1-8

Jesus told his disciples a parable
about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. 
He said, “There was a judge in a certain town
who neither feared God nor respected any human being. 
And a widow in that town used to come to him and say,
‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’
For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought,
‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, 
because this widow keeps bothering me
I shall deliver a just decision for her
lest she finally come and strike me.’” 
The Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. 
Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones
who call out to him day and night? 
Will he be slow to answer them? 
I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. 
But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . The Gospel tells of the persistent widow who keeps knocking on the lazy judge’s door until he ensures that justice is done. Don Fabio tells us that we have a poor widow and an unjust judge inside each of us. And their struggle is a struggle that will not be resolved if we do not allow time for persistent prayer. The widow inside of us yearns for what is good and right, yearns for Christ, just as the lady in the parable yearned for her spouse. The lazy and unjust judge within us, by contrast, is that facet of our nature that pursues its own designs and has no regard for anything else. Every day we have this internal struggle within us between the widow and the judge. We must enable the widow to win the battle, and we can only do this is we persevere in prayer, if we establish a regular and frequent routine of prayer to which we stick tenaciously. Sometimes we think that prayer is something that is done “up on the mountain” by the privileged few, whilst the daily struggle of living is done down on the plain by the rest of us. But we all need to ascend the mountain regularly if our struggles in life are to be efficacious. Prayer and life cannot be separated; they go together, intimately hand in hand. Once we devote ourselves regularly to prayer then we will see the Providence of God assisting us in those daily struggles and bringing our lives to fruition.

Prayer is often something that happens “up on the mountain”, apparently separated from life, whilst the daily struggle of existence happens “down on the plain”. But these two things - prayer and life - must not separated at all. They must be integrated by us into an intimate whole.

Sunday’s Gospel presents us with the story of the widow who manages to achieve her goal because she does not give up. The story of her tenacity throws light on the life of prayer and our relationship with God. The first reading prepares us for this theme with a strange image. Israel is fighting on the plain against the army of Amalek whilst Moses prays on the mountain above. When Moses arms are raised in prayer, Israel wins, but whenever his arms drop, Israel begins to lose. Eventually Aron and Hur have to assist Moses in keeping his arms raised. This image reminds us that we need the support of others in prayer. When my motivation for prayer is diminished, I rely on the zeal of others to stay going, and vice-versa. How beautiful is fraternal, communitarian prayer! But the theme of this Sunday’s liturgy is the relationship between prayer and the outcome of events in ordinary life. During prayer we make appeal to God for our necessities, worries and problems. In a sense it might seem that prayer is something that happens on the “mountain” whilst life is something that unfolds on the “plain”. While we are on the plain engaged in the battle of life, we often forget the relationship with God on the mountain. And, in the same way, we are inclined to think that people who spend their lives in prayer are up on the mountain with God, far removed from those of us who have to engage in daily combat on the ground. In reality, the two things are intimately related. When I take kids into enclosed monasteries, I often hear the superficial question: “How can you enclosed nuns spend your time closed up here instead of doing the many good and beautiful things that need to be done in the world?” They do not realize that if these sisters were not in here praying, then the good actions done by others outside would have far less impact in the world. My own ministry is to proclaim the Gospel. I too have need of consecrated persons and others praying for me, who protect me with their prayers and call me to prayer, call me to the mountain from which I must descend to engage the world. Our relationship with God must be the starting point of everything else we do, lest our ministry become something of a secondary nature that does not come truly from the Lord.

Within each of us there is a noble “widow” who seeks what is just and right, and there is a lazy judge who wants to pursue his own interests. The widow within us must be persistent and must keep knocking if the lazy judge is to be persuaded to do what is right

The fact is that we cannot live our lives effectively without prayer. In the Gospel we hear how the unjust judge is finally motivated to righteous action (the defence of the widow) because of the annoying persistence of the woman. In Jewish society, the widow was at the very bottom rung of the social ladder, a person without any support whatsoever. In the parable she demands justice from her adversary. This story of the lazy judge and the persistent widow is the story of the internal struggle without each of us. We are poor and vulnerable, aware of our many limits. This noble spirit within us is conscious of the risks that our adversary has placed in our way. At the same time we have a superficial side to our character that wants to pursue our own self-interested goals. We are inclined to think that these priorities are authentic and true, and, in our laziness, we do not want to listen to the demands being made by the more noble side of our nature. Within us there is a battle between these two “hearts”, the deeper heart and the superficial heart. The deeper heart asks for justice and is able to endure discomfort and loss in order to foster a relationship with God. This struggle between profundity and superficiality is a constant interior conflict for each of us. Prayer is essential if we are to finally succeed in winning the battle. It helps to purify us of the things that are inconsistent and corrupt; and it enables us to put things right, to bring about justice. The Providence of God responds to our prayer: once the poor heart within us has overcome the lazy and unjust heart, the Lord comes to the aid and sets things right. In a sense, the poor heart within us is yearning for Christ in the same way that the widow seeks the spouse that she has lost.

When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith in my heart? Only if I am regular and persistent in prayer, like the widow. Only if the good and noble part of me has overcome the lazy and selfish part. Only if I devote myself regularly and tenaciously to prayerful communion with the Lord.

In the final line of the Gospel, Jesus asks, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” This question points to a grave and serious danger of a daily sort: Am I today engrossed in things that are of a secondary nature, blinded to what is good, just and right? The fact is that the Son of Man comes to visit me often. He comes in moments of crisis and sadness; he comes during the daily vicissitudes of life. And when he comes, does he find faith is me? He finds faith in me if he discovers that I am praying. He will find faith in my heart if the poor part of me, the part that perseveres until it finds itself in God’s justice and fullness, has overcome the part that is distracted and unjust. And in order for this combat to be successful, my prayer life must be structured; it must be consistent and regular. It must not depend on my whims or my hormones, on what I feel like doing. Prayer is something that I must insist upon. I must hammer on this door regularly until it opens. It is important to lay down simple rules for prayer and to follow them. And we must battle against ourselves, our own laziness, in order to be faithful to prayer. In this way, the deeper person within us will begin to win the battle more often against the superficial person. The widow will win and the judge will have to give in to that which the widow is demanding, and we will be in right relationship with God. We must make basic rules for prayer, beginning and ending the day with prayer. We must make frequent appointments with God. As St Augustine says, these can be short if the frenetic pace of our life does not permit otherwise, but they must be often and regular. Perseverance and tenacity in prayer is something essential for each one of us.