Twenty Ninth
Sunday in OT C 2022
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.
There are
many ways to pray over this Gospel account.
I would suggest three ways for your prayerful consideration.
First, I
would invite to see the widow in this Gospel as an image of God. 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. I think
we would all say there is room for improvement in our spiritual journey. 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. The perseverance of the widow
witnesses to the God of second and third chances who neve gives up on us and
invites us to embrace God’s unconditional and unending love.
Secondly,
the widow in the Gospel account is representative of ourselves in our spiritual
journey.
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?
Persistence in prayer is
not to be understood as trying to change God’s mind, as if God was unwilling to
help us in the first place. It’s we who
need to change… Our prayer needs to be: “Not my will but thy will be done.” God’s will be our peace. His death on the cross is his gift of faith
and a love that heals and saves us all.
Have you called an
emergency number in your life? If ever you called 911, I am sure, it now
brings to your mind some traumatic experience. In any case, I suppose,
the emergency number is not the most frequently dialled number on your personal
telephone.
What is the most dialed
number in your phone, anyway? Is it your spouse, child, parent, friend,
business partner, or someone you love? Perhaps, these days, thanks to the
mobile phones you might even call the same person more than two, three times a
day! And what does that frequently dialed number say about your own
priorities in life?
Now, here is a more
important question: how would you describe your own acts of calling on
God! Are they emergency calls like a 911call, or are they frequent calls?
God needs to be the most
frequently dialed number in our daily lives.
Like the widow in the Gospel account, may we continuously call upon God
to accompany in all the challenges and in all the joys of life.
Thirdly, the widow in the
Gospel represents our neighbor whom we are called to love and serve.
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 her, 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?
In today’s Gospel, Jesus
encourages his disciples to pray always without becoming weary. Another essential aspect of our prayer life
is to see the value of our faith community to support and to inspire our prayer
journey. 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.
Perhaps we too need the help of the believing
community to support us in our continued prayer life. We are at our very
best as the Church of the Holy Spirit if we are brothers and sisters to each
other. You heard the expression it takes
a village to raise a child; it takes a Church community for us to grow in our
journey of faith. We are to inspire, to
support, to love, and to pray for each other that God’s love will be experienced
by everyone in our faith community.
Have a blessed day.
No comments:
Post a Comment