Our lifelong journey of faith is a spiritual marathon. In the various seasons of our life, we need to trust always in God's abiding presence.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus encourages his disciples to pray always without becoming weary.  Wow!  We see in the first Scripture reading, when Moses grew weary in prayer, the Israelites were losing in the battlefield.  But with the aid of his friends Aaron and Hur, Moses became strengthened again in prayer.

The evangelist Luke again and again reminds us that faith is essential to discipleship.  Today’s Gospel parable tells the account of the widow who because of her persistence was able to get the assistance she needed from the judge.  She is the example of perseverance – she simply won’t be put off and finally the unjust judge  gives in.

The widow may have reminded us of people we know:

                                --the single mother determined to get her children a valued education and getting them access to quality health care.  She would persist in coming to government offices, principals of schools,  hospitals and doctors’ office.  She had little concern for what people think of them, how she appears in the general public or whether she is being a nuisance.

Are there groups of people who are the widows of the modern world?

                                --ethnic minorities throughout the world

--women looking for equal opportunities in society.

                                --poor nations standing for their rights before the world community.

Who are the widows in the life of the Church?

                                --Are their people who would not be welcome in our parish community?  Are their people who feel like widows relative to our parish community?

And so, we ask ourselves:   In all truth can we join in solidarity with the widows of our society?

Do we recognize that the widow in today’s Gospel has so much to teach us?      

                Lesson #1:   All holy desires grow by delay.  While naively we might want to think in our prayer life that we need merely to ask for things and we get them.  Lord, help us to understand your wisdom that we are to pray always without becoming weary, without losing heart.  Remind us that when you delay to help us you ensure that there will always be faith on earth.  For me personally, I have a close priest friend who is dying.  It seems cruel to see him so frail and helpless and so restless.  I ask myself why.  It would be merciful for the Lord just to take him home.  But I need to live in God’s time for Father Ray and trust completely that he is in God’s loving hands.  In the delays of life, we are to pray always without becoming weary.

There was a time in my life when I was a marathon runner – 26 miles and 385 yards.  My sister thought this was crazy.  She didn’t like to drive her car for 26 miles.  To train for and to run the 26.2 miles takes some perseverance.  There is a grace to sprint short distances at full speed, but there is grace in the perseverance that is needed to run a marathon.

Our lifelong journey of faith is a spiritual marathon.  In the various seasons of our life, in both the green pastures and the dark valleys, we need to trust always in God’s abiding presence.

A fundamental faith question for all of us is:  In the hard times of life, do we bail out from trusting in God’s unconditional love for us or do we have the gift of perseverance we trust that our God goes with us in all experiences of life?

                Lesson #2:   No one possesses the truth, everyone seeks it.  Lord, help us to seek the truth humbly and perseveringly, like the widow in the Gospel, crying out day and night even when it delays in revealing itself to us.  Seeking the truth means more than memorizing the catechism for the right answers.  Seeking the truth is a humble way of living and encountering God by which we confess:  Be patient, God isn’t finished with me yet.  We are always in the process, in the journey of faith of discovering more fully the mystery of God’s presence in our lives.  I believe Lord, help my unbelief.

As we seek the truth in this year of mercy, we are called to be vessels of mercy in the lives of the widows, the poor, and the strangers in our midst.

We pray that your church may be like the widow, always coming in search of new solutions, with the confidence that if we do not meet with success, it is merely that you are delaying to help us.

Lord, at this time in human history many are seeking vengeance for terrorist attacks.  We pray that your Church may be in word and in deed the prophetic voice of Jesus telling his disciples the parable of the widow seeking justice against her enemies.

                Lesson #3:   The God figure in this parable is not the judge but the persistent widow.  This parable invites us to think about that God never gives us on our faith community.  Like the persistent and resilient widow of the gospel, God never gives up on us.

 Yes, we could  be more faithful in our full participation in Sunday Eucharist; yes we could spend more time in prayer at our Eucharistic Adoration; yes, the families of our parish could be more committed to family prayer; yes, we as a parish could be more mission-minded in serving the needs of the poor.  But God, like the widow in the Gospel account, continues to call us back to a life of discipleship.

What is our image of God?  May the persistence of this widow give us an insight into God’s unending love for us.  There is nothing we can do to stop God from loving us.