(Homily 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Yr. C)
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.
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. Luigi
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.
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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