(Homily 29th Sunday in
Ordinary Time, Yr. C)
World Mission Sunday 2019
In virtually all the religions prayer is a
fundamental expression and characteristic of one’s faith. More importantly, in
the Christian religion, prayer acquires an extraordinary importance. The
Liturgy of the Word today places the theme of prayer at the heart of our
reflections. Prayer is that necessary and constant element in our religious
experience that nourishes and enlivens our spiritual life and our life in its
entirety. Jesus gave us a wonderful example on prayer, for he was seen many
times in a constant attitude of prayer especially in important and decisive
moments of his life and mission (cf. Lk.
3:21; 6:12-13; 9:18.28-29; 23:24.46), Jesus equally taught his disciples
how to pray (cf. Mt. 6:5-8; 7:7; Lk.
11:1-4; Mk. 11:22-24). We really need to emphasize on the importance of
prayer and the need for its constancy too, especially in our world today where
men and women are caught up in the dangling position of two extremes, at one
side we see the presumptuous attitude of believing that they can obtain
whatever they want by their capacity and power alone, and at the other side, we
see the tendency of those who pray and shout as if God is a manipulative tool
in their hands. Today we live in a world where men and women have become more
frenetic than ever, they are obsessive and compulsive in their behavior, busy many
a times doing nothing. Thus, in this situation it is difficult to find a
minimum space and time for prayer and a colloquium with God. And again, we live
in a noisy society where it is not very easy to find the decorum and the
suitable and enabling environment needed for prayer.
In
the world of faith, everything is a gift. As gift we do not have right to
anything, but we have to ask for it humbly in prayer. For that, Jesus in the
Parable today reminds us of the need to pray without ceasing, exemplified by
the widow who never gave up in disturbing the Judge until she obtains justice.
In the first reading, Moses on his part, accompanied by Aaron and Hur never
ceased during the day in raising their hands and heart to Yahweh, until the
Israelites overcome the Amalekites. St. Paul in the second reading reminds us
of the importance of God’s word in order to perform good works, prayer
inclusive. Prayer more than the sword,
obtains victory. Even as we celebrate Mission Sunday today, prayer still
remains the essential element that engenders God’s urgent call in our heart and
enlivens our desire and experiences of Mission. Prayer ought to be the first
instrument of the missionary. The Church is missionary in nature, and we the
members too are missionaries, though in different categories and degrees, some
participate in the mission by going,
some by giving while others by praying. And the readings (Zech.8:20-23; Ps.19:2-3.4-5; Rm.10:9-18;
Mk.16:15-20) proper to the Mission Sunday revolve around the beauty and the
necessity of the missionary exploit, indeed “how beautiful are the feet of
those who preach the good news” (Rm.10:15)
and again “Go into the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation” (Mk.16:15).
The first reading (Ex.17:8-13) presents the fascinating story of the Amalekites and
the people of Israel. On the Israelites mission towards the Promised Land, they
were to pass through Amalek, and the Amalekites stood on their way and waged
war against them. As war ensued between the Israelites and the Amalekites, Moses
ordered Joshua to attack them, while he went to the mountain with Aaron and Hur
to pray for God’s help. While Moses was praying with his hands raised up,
Joshua will be winning, but as soon as he lowers his arms for weakness, the
Amalekites will gain upper hand. Then the nagging question that was coming up
in their minds: How can the hand of Moses be constantly kept raised in prayer?
Aaron and Hur found a solution, they put a stone under Moses and made him sat
on it, while the two of them (left and right) supported his arms, and this
effort and gesture assured victory for them. Symbolically, the raising of hands
points to God, and it is a cultic gesture of invocation for divine assistance. And
the gesture of the raised hands that
have to be supported constantly brings to light the values of constancy and
perseverance in Prayer. In our many trials, how many times, do we raise our
hands towards heaven, to call on God with confidence and trust? Truly, to say
it with the psalmist, “Our help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth”
(Ps.121:2).
Today’s Gospel (Lk. 18:1-8) throws more light on the first reading, on the need of
persistency and insistency in prayer. In the bid, to answer the people’s plea
on injustice and existential problems, Jesus came up with the Parable of the
poor widow who could not obtain justice from a wicked judge. This parable, more
than anything else is a parable on Prayer, because Jesus’ intention for
narrating it as St. Luke tells us is “to the effect that they ought always to
pray and not to lose heart” (Lk. 18:1).
The prayer that is the subject of today's gospel is the prayer of petition. It
is a very important form of prayer, of course, but it is not the most
important. Prayer of praise is the highest form of prayer.
The Judge as presented by St. Luke neither
fears God nor respects man, little wonder, at first he was indifferent to the
pleas of the poor widow, but upon her insistence and persistence he was compelled
to give her justice. Not because he was moved with sympathy or empathy, but
because he wants his peace, he does not want to be disturbed by the widow. The
judge decided to do justice to the widow, in order that she bothers him no
more. The insistence of the widow
overcame the resistance of the Judge. It is worthy to note, that this
parable in no way presents God as the wicked Judge, rather it portrays the
existential context of the Jews at that time. However, Jesus seized the
occasion to educate his followers on how and what to pray. As a matter of act, a beautiful prophetic image of perseverant
and persistent prayer is Jesus Christ, whose prayer continued even when his
soul was sorrowful unto death.
Again, sometimes we may experience what
the poor widow in today’s gospel experienced, little wonder, St. Luke
symbolically did not mention the precise location of the episode, he says: “in
a certain town” (v.2). Sometimes it
may come in form of injustice meted out to us, suffering and hardship inflicted
on us by others. But Jesus, tells us today, in such situations and occasions we
should make our voices heard, we should never give up. On the other hand, this
parable teaches us that God is not
controlled by human needs. He intervenes at the appointed time. Ours is to
pray! Nevertheless, Jesus does not hesitate in calling back our attention
on the necessity of prayer, and its constancy. Indeed, perseverance in prayer is a sign and a proof of trust and abandonment
in God. In fact, in Jesus’ parlance, it
is not just necessary to pray, but to pray always. The important thing about praying is perseverance and persistence,
little wonder, St. Paul urges the Ephesians: “In all your prayer and entreaty
keep praying in the Spirit on every possible occasion. Never get tired of
staying awake to pray for all God’s holy people” (Eph. 6:18). A
Christian has to cultivate the attitude of prayer, for we learn how to pray by
praying, and the more we pray, the more it becomes easy to pray. They more we stoop and kneel before God in
prayer, the more he raises us and we stand tall and great before our challenges
and challengers.
Dearly beloved, the prayer we are talking about here, is not the casual vocal prayer,
is not that hysterical dramatization we often see today, is not a stage show,
rather the Prayer that Jesus is talking about is that, made with the mind and
the heart. Without mincing words, prayer more than its common understanding
as an interaction with God, has to be a spiritual attitude before God. It
should originate from the heart, St.
Liugi Guanella captured it well, when he opined that “prayer is the thing of
the Heart”, and it is indeed. Prayer is not a monologue, of someone
shouting to a “deaf god”, rather it is a dialogue, (of one speaking and
listening to a Friend and a Father) but it entails an attitude of listening,
paying attention to what God has to tell me. It is the humble attitude of a
mental and internal disposition of oneself to God, and it entails emptying oneself in order to be refilled by Him.
Usually, each time I pray well I feel something great in me. Prayer indeed, is the gym of the Christian
soul. Prayer also goes with corresponding actions. Little wonder, St. Benedict used “ora et labora” as his motto. My prayer and spiritual life should
not be disconnected with my real life or actions. Rather my prayer should push
me into action. Else, there is a danger
of suffering spiritual schizophrenia.
We cannot but enter into constant contact
with God, our Supreme Being; in fact any contingent being that wants to survive
needs this contact with the Necessary Being. We are creatures and as such, we
are dependent on God, we need His help in order to continue to exist. Prayer may be described as a concentration
on who God is and who we are in relationship to God. Indeed, St. Paul
captured this well when in the Acts of the Apostles he affirmed vigorously that
“in Him we live, in Him we move, in Him we have our being” (Acts 17:28). In the Gospel of St. John Jesus says: “cut off from me
you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5). Once
again, we need to pray as children of God for in the words of Jesus: “nothing
is impossible to God” (Lk. 1:37).
In the second reading (2Tm. 3:14-4:2) St. Paul assured Timothy that “all scripture is
inspired by God and useful for refuting error, for guiding people’s lives and
teaching them to be upright” (2Tm. 3:16).
Be that as it may, the Sacred Scripture
nourishes our prayer; it forms us to the spirit of prayer and inspires to say
better prayers. On the other hand, even though we have affirmed vigorously
that prayer is necessary, it behooves us also to opine that prayer is not all,
because it is necessary to incarnate our prayer into action, just as in the
motto of St. Benedict: “Ora et labora”.
For every Christian by virtue of his
baptism and his belonging to the church, is called to participate in the mission
of spreading of the message of salvation, in word and in deed. Therefore,
every Christian has to appropriate the following words of St. Paul to Timothy:
“Before God and before Christ Jesus who is to be judge of the living and the
dead, I charge you, in the name of his appearing and his Kingdom: proclaim the
message and, welcome or unwelcome, insist on it. Refute falsehood, correct
error, give encouragement-but do all with patience and with care to instruct” (2Tm. 4:1-2).
St. Paul’s invitation of Timothy to
dedicate himself to the teaching of the Word is at the heart of the Church’s
missionary experience. The above words of exhortation of St. Paul situate us
well into the context of today’s Mission Sunday; indeed, we are all called to
spread the message of salvation in and out of season, to insist on it with our
life, wherever we go and in every context we find ourselves. The message at the heart of this Mission
Sunday reminds us that we too are “baptized and sent” to continue the
mission of our Lord Jesus Christ in the world.
Brethren, let us pray earnestly for our
missionaries that just like the voice and sound of the apostles and disciples
of Jesus that “their sound goes forth through all the earth. Their message to
the utmost bounds of the world” (Ps.19:4).
It is by means of that, that we may be able to respond positively to the
question of Jesus in the Gospel: “when the Son of man comes, will he find faith
on earth” (Lk.18:8). Therefore, we
pray for us and for the active missionaries, may God give us the grace to
rediscover the place of Prayer and the Word of God in our various missions. Jesus is calling us today to go back to the
gym where we exercise our souls for Eternal fitness: Prayer. Above all, let
us keep our faith and mission alive through prayer. May God bless our true and
authentic missionaries. Happy Mission Sunday
Friends!
(Fr.
Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)
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