Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish

 (Fr Michael FR MICHAEL BIBLICAL IMAGERY

Boakye Yeboah: Vice Rector of St Gregory Seminary, Kumasi-Ghana)

PERSISTANCE

            Persistence occupies a central place in the readings of the 29^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C. Persistence is very central in the spirituality and theology of prayer. Jesus’ practice of prayer and teachings on prayer form a recurring theme in Luke, and this parable, which is introduced as a parable on prayer, is found only in the Gospel of Luke. It is not surprising, therefore, that Luke interprets this parable as a call to persistent prayer.

            The degree of persistence is graphically stated in the parable of the widow and the unjust judge. The parable is brilliantly placed immediately after the discourse in which Jesus makes clear that the kingdom he proclaims is not yet the end-time, that there must be a period in which the disciples will “long to see one of the days of the Son of Man and will not see it” (Luke 17:22). A parable told with the point that “it is necessary to pray constantly without giving up” is particularly appropriate. The readers can all too easily see themselves as the widow, subject to oppression and delayed retribution, and by losing hope and courage become those who “have faith for a time but in a season of testing fall away (Luke 8:13). The parable makes its point so forcefully and humorously that little comment is required. Taken by itself, however, the parable may call attention to God’s responsiveness to the widow as an exemplar of the poor and oppressed rather than to the widow’s persistence in pressing her case. The interpreter may focus on either the widow or the judge, and either focus can foster fruitful reflections.

            The judge is introduced as a certain judge in a certain city. This situation is either hypothetical or deliberately non-specific. All attention is focused on the characterization of this judge, “who neither feared God nor had respect for people.” In the light of the requirements and expectations for judges, the point is obvious: This judge is completely unfit for his position. The judge was clearly not a Jewish judge. All ordinary Jewish disputes were taken before the elders, and not into the public courts at all. If, under Jewish law, a matter was taken to arbitration, one man could not constitute a court. There were always three judges, one chosen by the plaintiff, one by the defendant, and one independently appointed.

            This judge may have been one of the paid magistrates appointed either by Herod or by the Romans. Such judges were notorious. Unless plaintiffs had influence and money to bribe their way to a verdict they had no hope of ever getting a case settled. These judges were said to pervert justice for a dish of meat. Judges of this kind were recently uncovered by a Ghanaian undercover journalist; who filmed judges collecting “goats” as bribes to rule in the giver’s favor. The sad side of the story is that in one of the cases, the said “goat” did not get home to the judge’s wife.

            Jesus used a story of corrupt judge of his day to teach his listeners on “persistent prayer.” As he often does, in today’s Gospel He takes the immoral realities of our world as his point of departure. Here it is the corrupt judge, elsewhere it was the servant who defrauds his master, the prodigal son, the foolish rich man, the glutton, the wicked vineyard owner. Beginning with what is familiar, Jesus wants to move up to the laws of the kingdom of God. Here, as in the parable of the friend knocking at the door at midnight, the point of comparison is the persistence of an importunate but not unjust request. If even the wicked… then all the more God who is good. Jesus wants to make utterly clear to us: God wants men to ask him, even to pester him. If an insensitive, atheist, and corrupt judge can be responsive to persistent petition; how much more will a loving God be to his children’s persistent prayers.

            One of the lessons of this parable is that we should not lose heart if the result to our prayer does not happen as quickly as we would like. If we lose heart, we are the losers. God is not the loser. If we do not get what we are praying for while we are praying for it, there is no chance that we shall ever get it if we stop praying. While we were praying, there was still some chance that we would get it. When we now stop praying for it altogether, that chance will no longer be there; it will simply evaporate.

            God will do what we are praying for in his own good time. Everyone says that God’s time is the best. When it comes to prayer, we often forget that. Our own time becomes the best. We want God to do it in our own time. And if he does not, we give up or, to use the words of today’s Gospel reading one more time, we lose heart. Some of us, believe it or not, even seem to give God an ultimatum. They seem to tell God: “Look here, God! I want you to do this thing for me in the next twenty-four hours (one week or one year). If by this time tomorrow (next week or next year) you don’t do it, you will see what I will do to you. I will stop praying to you; I will stop going to church; I will change my church. And, God, it will all be your fault. Don’t blame me; you will be all to blame.” Yes, that is what some of us seem to do with Good when we expect him to answer our prayer in our own time, not his own. We give him an ultimatum.

            But God is not our errand-boy, to be ordered around as we please. We must try and wait on the Lord, for the Psalmist says: “Wait for the Lord, and keep to his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land… (Psalm 37:34). Proverbs 20:22 says, “… wait for the Lord, and he will help you.” There is a well-known wise injunction that says, “If once you try and you don’t succeed, try, try, try again.” That is what we should do when we pray. But did you ever hear the other version, the stupid version, that says, “If once you try, and you don’t succeed, don’t be a fool! Give up!” That is what we do if we do not persevere while praying.

            In the first reading, the portrait of Moses’ uplifted hands during the battle with the Amalekites speaks volumes. As Joshua fights, Moses prays – and it is a penance for him, since it is difficult and painful to keep his hands lifted up to God for hours on end. Aaron and Hur support Moses’ arms when they begin to droop, and they hold up his arms until evening, so that Israel can win the battle. When you are getting tired of your persistent prayer, call for help but never give up. The word of which the second reading speaks is not a word of mere action, as in Joshua’s battle, rather, it is equally the word of petitionary prayer, the word spoken by Moses’ upraised hands. “Remain faithful to what you have learned”, that is, “out of the sacred scripture”, which never call people to mere orthopraxis. Only if the “man of God” is “instructed” by “the Scripture inspired of God” will he be “equipped for every good work”. The first “good work” is prayer, which has to be taught to Christians through “tireless and patient teaching.” The famous spiritual writer C. S. Lewis is quoted to have said: “When we get to heaven we will be thankful to God for some unanswered prayers.” The Will of the Lord be done.