TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR "C"

Cycle “C”: Ex 17, 8 –13; 2Tim 3.14-4,2; Lk 18, 1 – 8.

Introduction: The first reading of today’s liturgy describes how the Israelites defeated the Amalekites in battle: but for that ultimate victory, Moses had top stand with his arms outstretched in prayer. When his arms became heavy, two members of the community helped keep them extended till sunset when victory was achieved.

Look at Jesus with his arms extended on the cross, praying for all including his executioners. His final prayer was, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

United with Our Lord, we commit ourselves to the Father in order to adore, praise. and thank him, begging his mercy and for all that we need for ourselves and loved ones.

 

THE HOMILY: We find people irritating for all sorts of reasons. One reason is that they are always talking about themselves and don’t know when to keep quiet. But it also possible to be irritated with someone for another reason: because they are right and you are wrong, and deep down you know it. Just like the judge in the Gospel story.

The judge is an unsympathetic man, who has no time for God and doesn’t care two shekels what people think of him. So when the poor widow stands up and says, “Give me justice”, he simply ignores her. “Next case, please.” So he thought that was that. Except that this woman was not prepared to be fobbed off so easily. Every time the judge appeared in court, she stood up and made a nuisance of herself. Eventually, with his nerve shot, he said to himself, (we presume), “I may not care a shekel for god or man, but this woman is driving me stark raving naked mad. So let’s give her what she wants and I’ll see the back of her.” So he ends up by doing what is right, though for the wrong reasons, i.e. to rid himself of a splitting feminine headache.

Now there’s something we have to be careful about. You see, so often we picture God as a judge. So we assume that today’s gospel parable is depicting God as being like the judge in the story. This is disastrous! Yes, some people do think of God as needing to be badgered and pestered into doing things. But Jesus was not one of them. Jesus didn’t badger and pester his Father. Indeed, the real point of the story is exactly the opposite. The lesson Jesus teaches here is simple: if a hard-hearted human judge could be moved to act by the widow’s persistence, how much more will God, who is loving and gracious, hear his people’s cry for help?

There are two other lessons: One is that we Christians have to learn to be people who will not accept defeat, who do not know when to stop, when the cause is just and right. A good many of the problems of human society have only been solved by people who made a thorough nuisance of themselves because they knew that they were right.

One example. In December 1955, in the town of Montgomery, Alabama, US, a black American woman after a day’s work boarded a bus and took a seat. She was ordered to give up her seat in favour of a white man who had just got on. But she refused and sat where she was, and got arrested. While she was in prison, a Baptist minister, called Martin Luther King, came to her defence and organised a yearlong boycott of the busses by the black population of Montgomery, Alabama. The authorities gave in. Thus was born the American Civil Rights Movement. In 1974 the Civil Rights Bill was eventually passed by the US Congress.

The other lesson coming out of today’s gospel story is that unlike an unjust human judge, our dear God knows the needs of his children even before they ask. It teaches us something about trust. We have only to look at the life of Jesus to know where his source of strength came from. In that power, that inner strength, he faced hostility and opposition, went to the cross and passed through death into a transcendent life.

If we are going to leave this world a little better than we found it, if we are going to serve with love and without cynicism, self-interest and pride, we have to share in the power of the only one who has succeeded in doing those things and doing them right: Jesus our Lord. Such motivation and such inner strength are ours for the asking.

It was Alfred Lord Tennyson who said, in a phrase that has now become famous, “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.” But it was a greater person than Tennyson who said, “Ask and it will be given you. Seek and you will find.”

 

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, you are portrayed as a man of prayer, and we rejoice to follow in your footsteps. You prayed at your baptism (Lk 3,21), you prayed the entire night before selecting your 12 apostles (6,12), you prayed as you resolutely took the road for Jerusalem (9,28), and in Gethsemane before offering the supreme sacrifice (22,41), and, with open arms on the cross you prayed for all, including your executioners. And your final prayer was “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit"(24,46).

We beseech you, Lord Jesus, enable us to reproduce your prayer life in our own lives so that your prayer to the Father may come true for us, namely, “Father, I pray that where I am they also may be.”