Homily -- 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Readings: Ex 17:8–13 ; 2 Tm 3:14–4:2; Lk 18:1–

"Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth!" That's the response to today's psalm. Do we mean it? And if so, what do we mean by it?

The past few weeks, we have reflected about Christian virtues such as faith, generosity, charity, and gratitude. Today we focus on persistence in prayer. While that may seem obvious to those who regularly come to Church, the Lord nevertheless wants us to know that we can count on being heard if we maintain a constant connection to God. 

Normally, in our reflective moments we sense the importance of prayer; yet there are times we struggle to pray. When we pray, sometimes we walk on water and other times we sink like a stone. Sometimes we have a deep sense of God's reality and other times we can't even imagine that God exists. Sometimes we have deep feelings about God's goodness and love; other times we feel only boredom and distraction. Sometimes our eyes fill with tears in deep prayer while other times they wander to our wristwatches to see how much time we still need to spend in prayer. Sometimes we would like to stay in our palace of prayer forever and other times we wonder why we even showed up. Sustained, deep prayer does not come easy for many of us. 

Time and again, we read in the Old Testament how God´s people are saved by their confidence in the Lord. For instance, the case of plagues that obtained Israel´s liberation from slavery in Egypt and the destruction of the Egyptian army when they tried to overtake Israel during the crossing of the Red Sea. In today’s first reading, it is about the defeat of the Amalekites. Their victory is attributed to God through the intercessory prayer of Moses. 

In the gospel passage, Jesus is conscious of the tendency of believers to give up on prayer if there are no immediate results. As he does so on many occasions, Jesus employs imagination to come up with a parable that teaches the lesson "about the need to pray continually and never lose heart.”. He presents the worst-case scenario of an unjust judge, from whom a poor helpless widow needs to obtain a favor. Being a widow –one of the most vulnerable categories of persons of the time– with no lawyer to represent her, she has little chance of obtaining what she desires. However, because of her unremitting petitions, she obtains justice. 

Through the parable, Jesus is not comparing God to the evil judge, suggesting that God answers prayers only to avoid being further bothered. Rather, Jesus is telling us that if even an evil judge eventually gave in to the cry of an insignificant widow, how much more will God, a loving Father listen to the cry of His children, whom He created in His image and likeness!

Prayer is not about persuading God to do what we want; however noble it may be; it is about inviting God to mold us in faith into what he wants for us. Prayer is at the heart of our relationship with the God. Life teaches us that any worthwhile relationship can never be taken for granted. Our relationships are sustained by a generous attentiveness to the other. And in our relationship with God such attentiveness is prayer, an openness that is centered on God, rather than on our own preoccupations. 

In a pragmatic culture that demands quick and preferably easy solutions to every problem, we may find it difficult to recognizes the steady, patient, ever-active and surprising work of God. We usually seek surface and instant results; God transforms the depths that define the surface. While no one likes difficulty, it is often through our persistence in the face of obstacles that we grow and mature.  In midst of tough times, God is present with grace, wisdom, and strength. May we call upon the Lord as we face our challenges with persistence. ###