October 16th 2022. Twenty-Ninth Sunday of the Year

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 ...

 

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

 

SUMMARY OF  HOMILY

Sometimes we think that prayer is something detached from life. We think

prayer takes place at set times and in special exclusive places. Prayer happens on the

“mountain”, we surmise, whereas real life takes place down on the “plain”. Sometimes

people challenge nuns in contemplative orders and say, “Why don’t you do something

useful instead of just praying?” This question arises out of ignorance. Without these nuns

the life of the Church would have no depth and would bear no fruit. In the same way,

prayer must be at the heart of all my daily activity if my life is to be fruitful. How essential

it is to be aware of the importance of prayer for authentic life! We must realize that we

cannot do anything worthwhile unless we have a life of prayer. The parable of the poor

widow and the lazy judge applies to each one of us personally. Within you and me, there

is the poor and noble widow who seeks meaning and justice, and there is also the lazy

judge who just wants to do the minimum. Our greatest enemy is mediocrity, a lazy

tendency to live superficially. It is essential that we pray to the Lord continually,

throughout the day, in everything that we do. When we pray, the noble spirit within

us perseveres like the widow, and in time it will bear fruit, overcoming the mediocre

and superficial judge within us.

 

Sometimes we think that prayer is something detached from life. Prayer takes place on the

“mountain” whereas real life happens down on the “plain”. But prayer must be at the heart

of all my daily activity if it is to be fruitful.

This Sunday's first reading tells of a battle involving the army of Israel down on the plains,

while Moses prays up on the mountain. When Moses raises his arms in prayer, Israel wins,

but as soon as his arms fall, Israel begins to lose. Often, we tend to think that prayer takes place

on the "mountain", while life is played out down on the "plain". When we are preoccupied

with life’s affairs, our relationship with God might seem distant, remote, useless. We feel that

are too many other things to think about! People of prayer, like consecrated women in

monasteries, are often asked questions such as: "Why are you here instead of doing useful

things in the world?" These questions come from ignorance. If the Church did not have these

sisters in prayer, it would be just one more NGO - as Pope Francis remarked years ago.

Every visible act has an invisible heart. If my ministry is to proclaim the Gospel, then, for

my ministry to be fruitful, I need a Church that is praying for me. It is this prayer that make

my evangelization the fruit of a communion between the visible and the invisible, between

prayer and works, between God and humanity. Without prayer, Christian acts lose their depth.

 

We must remain aware of the importance of prayer for authentic life. We must realize

that we cannot do anything worthwhile unless we have a life of prayer

In the same way, a married couple cannot live their daily life and its activity without the

secret of intimacy, without an "enclosure", without their personal dialogue, their coming

together, their acceptance of each other. If they neglect this hidden part of their relationship,

they will lose everything else. But neither can the couple persevere in intimate relationship

with each other if they lose sight of the bigger picture, the goal of their shared life together.

Similarly we will not persevere in prayer if we do not see it as being essential for authentic

life as a Christian. In the Gospel, the widow of the parable is tenacious: "Give me justice

against my adversary!" This woman knows two things: that she deserves justice and that

there is someone who opposes her right to justice. Prayer remains alive if we remember

that it is our duty to live authentically, to possess the Holy Spirit. We remain true to prayer

if we do not forget that we were born to have love in our hearts and do something worthwhile

with our lives.

 

Within us there is the poor and noble widow who seeks meaning and justice, but there is

also the lazy judge who just wants to get by. Our greatest enemy is mediocrity, a lazy tendency

to live superficially. It is essential that we pray continually, so that the noble spirit within

us can prevail over the mediocre.

On the night of World Youth Day 2000, St. John Paul II continued to repeat the phrase: "Don’t give up!” Don't give in to the banal. In fact, we have an enemy and its name is “mediocrity” – the art of surviving just to get by. The habit of not loving anyone. The story of the lazy judge and the persistent widow is the story of the interior struggle within each one of us. We are poor and vulnerable like the widow, but there is a noble spirit within us who knows that our existence is not a mistake, that we are profoundly significant. But we also have a superficial spirit, a lazy judge who just wants to get by. Within us there is a battle between the profound and the superficial, between the noble and the banal. We pray in order not to lose sight of our greatness. At the end of the Gospel passage, Jesus asks: "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" The Son of Man comes to visit us often, through graces and tribulations. When he comes, he will find faith in us if we do not yield to our true enemy, mediocrity. We were made for much more.