- 1st Reading – Exodus 17:8-13
- 2nd Reading – 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
- Gospel – Luke 18:1-8
“When the Son of Man Comes, will he find faith on earth?” That’s the question we just heard Jesus ask at the end of our Gospel reading. And it’s a question that each and every one of us must answer on our own.
Today’s reading teaches us about the importance of perseverance in prayer’ and the importance of continued prayer; to pray always. So much has been written on prayer and so many great leaders of our faith have exhorted us to pray and spoken about how we must do so that it’s hard to find new words to improve upon those already given to us. So, let’s begin with a simple definition. The “Catechisms of the Catholic Church” Tells us: “Christian prayer is a covenant relationship between God and man in Christ.” It goes onto say “God tirelessly calls each person to this mysterious encounter with himself. Prayer unfolds throughout the whole history of salvation as a reciprocal call between God and man.”
St. Therese of Lisieux said, “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart. It is a simple look toward heaven. It is a cry of recognition and of love embracing both trial and joy.” St. John Damascene said, “Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God.
However, we define prayer, our prayer life defines our relationship with God. Prayer and Christian life are inseparable. Jesus tells us we ought to pray continually.
Today’s 1st reading gives us a vivid picture of the power of constant prayer. Jewish tradition tells us that uplifted arms is a posture of prayer, so as long as Moses kept his arms uplifted in prayer, God favored the Israelites in their battle. That image can be brought to our current Christian life. Just like Moses who grew weary and needed the support of Aaron and Hur, our church leaders, the Pope Frances, Archbishop Andrew, Fr. Mike, and all priests and bishops need our prayers and support. Without our prayers and support, Christ’s church today cannot be victorious in the worldly and spiritual battles of today’s society.
Today’s Gospel also gives us a picture of the power of persistent prayer. The widow is a symbol of all who are poor and defenseless and simply seeking justice in an unjust society. In the end, if an unjust judge can be worn down to give in through her constant pleading, how much more will God, who is a loving father, give His children who are in constant prayer. Jesus holds the widow up as a model of persistence for his followers.
Luke puts this parable in his Gospel where it is for a reason. He put it right after a section where Jesus talks to his disciples about his second coming and how they would long for the day when he would return. They knew that day that Jesus would defeat the forces of evil and bring justice to the earth. The early Christians of St. Luke’s time were suffering persecution and injustices, and they were getting more and more discouraged as each day went by without Jesus returning. So, Luke presents this parable which Jesus uses to show them that they should pray always and not lose heart. He wants them to pray to God to bring justice to his people, to pray to God to help them persevere and to continually work for justice in an unjust world, with confidence that God is working with them until the day that Jesus comes back to make things right.
It’s important here to define what the term “justice” means when it is used in the bible. Biblical justice refers to putting things right, putting things back to how God intended them to be at creation. God intended for every human being to share in the gifts of creation, to have everything they needed to live and to love and to build and grow to their full potential. But then man went and messed it all up. From the beginning, human actions have served to transform the perfect world that God created into a broken world in which there are many people who are left out, who do not share in these gifts, who don’t even have their basic needs met. Biblical justice means to take action to fix this brokenness, to work to change the conditions in society that produce it and to get things back to the way God meant them to be.
Biblical justice is built on the essential worth and dignity of every single person from the moment they were conceived. Catholic social teaching reminds us that human dignity is not something that one earns by their achievements, but is bestowed upon them by God. Those who are homeless or jobless and have to scrounge for enough food to eat, share the same human dignity as a Nobel prize winner or a TV celebrity. There is a unique and sacred worth that is present in every single person simply because they have been created by God and have been made in the image and likeness of God. Because of this shared human dignity, we who call ourselves Christians, have a responsibility to the poor, the oppressed, the exploited, and the powerless— those who are so often stripped of their human dignity. We have the responsibility to help change the unjust structures, institutions and practices that create or contribute to their suffering.
The word “justice” occurs in the bible over 130 times. It’s striking how many times God sticks up for the little guy, the disadvantaged person, again and again; and he calls us to do the same. The Book of Deuteronomy tells us, “Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien, the orphan, or the widow.” Through the prophets Isaiah, Micah, Amos, and Jeremiah, God makes clear our responsibility to not only act justly ourselves, but to work to eliminate injustices against those powerless to do it for themselves. And, of course, we have Jesus himself warning us that we will be judged on how we treat the least among us.
When it comes to economics, resources, opportunities, food, and medical care, most of us sit pretty comfortably near the top, while millions, maybe billions of our brothers and sisters live way beneath us on just a few dollars a day or even less. It’s hard for us, unless we’ve been there, to know what life looks like from the bottom. So, we have to continually educate ourselves about the work of justice. The mainstream media certainly isn’t going to do it. Their job is to push us to an even more luxurious lifestyle. It’s up to us to seek out the voices of those at the bottom, and to listen to them, find out how we can help them. And just a quick plug here, I’m still looking for more volunteers for prison ministry. But there are many ways in which we can help the disadvantaged.
But above all, we need to pray. Because without God, we can do nothing. With God, we can move mountains. In today’s busy society, it’s easy to forget to pray, or to wonder where we can find the time or the place to pray. The answer is, we can pray anywhere, anytime. St. John Chrysostom said, “It is possible to offer fervent prayer even while walking in public, or strolling alone, buying, or selling, or even while cooking. Mother Theresa, when too busy to pray vocally, offered up her service to others as her prayers.
As Catholics, Mass is the perfect prayer, but that’s obviously, a luxury that’s not always available; especially for those of us working daily jobs. So, our daily personal prayer life is very important; whether we pray the rosary daily, the “Liturgy of the Hours,” or a simple thanksgiving to God. God is always waiting like a true loving father; He is always ready to listen. His hand is always there to grasp. His shoulder always there to lean on. There’s simply no bad time for prayer.
“When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” That’s a question that each of us should take personally. I do. When Jesus comes for us at the end of our life or on the last day, do we want him to find a person whose faith was just so-so, someone who said, “There’s too much wrong in the world. How could anything I have done make a difference?” Or do we want him to find a person who lived as though the word “faith” was a verb and not a noun; someone who believed that even their meager efforts were part of God’s ultimate plan to bring divine justice to the world, to make all things right.