From the Sunday Note, with additional thoughts:
Jesus told his disciples a parable
about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.
He said, “There was a judge in a certain town
who neither feared God nor respected any human being.
And a widow in that town used to come to him and say,
‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’
For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought,
‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being,
because this widow keeps bothering me
I shall deliver a just decision for her
lest she finally come and strike me.'”
The Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says.
Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones
who call out to him day and night?
Will he be slow to answer them?
I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily.
But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Sunday’s Gospel, Luke 18:1-8
Pray like a widow with moxie!
Luke doesn’t leave us in doubt about what Jesus was getting at in this parable: the necessity that we “pray always without becoming weary.” Ho and hum— that sounds platitudinous enough—but Jesus finds a way to make it stick in our minds.
Imagine, he says, a local corrupt official, a guy who is all self-interest, a man without regard for those he rules and who flatly ignores the possibility of any supposed “god” over all. The widow hasn’t the votes or the family support to challenge his refusal to rule against a neighbor who is cheating her. She persists, and he finally gives in and makes an honest judgment in her favor. A couple of the commentators on this passage tell us the sense of the Greek “I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me” is similar to our phrase “lest she gives me a black eye!” whether taken literally or metaphorically. If this wicked man will finally give a just judgment due to the woman’s perseverance, Jesus’ argument goes, then how much more certain is it that his heavenly Father will judge justly for his persevering people?
There is some ambiguity about “when” this will happen. God’s time scale and ours do not always match. Compare the child asking “Mom, I’m hungry, when is supper?” She answers “Soon, honey. I’ve already started on it now.” The child has to learn “soon” could be 10 minutes if supper is to be a sandwich, or 40 minutes for something richer and tastier. The word translated “speedily” in the parable can also be translated “suddenly” just as the child continues to long for supper for 10 or 40 minutes, and then “suddenly” it is ready, just as he was about to give up!
Continue calling out to God for justice day and night, Jesus teaches—pray like a widow with moxie who never gives up! That, he says, is the faith I will be looking for when I return.
For further reflection:
Faith is performative. In other words, it is not simply a correct understanding of salvation or how God works (though it includes that). Faith is lived out day-by-day as trust that a.) our understanding is true and correct AND b.) we will live in expectation that the Lord’s way will triumph, even though we may not see that happen in our daily life here on earth. That is the saving message of the Resurrection that the original Apostles pass on to us. All their prayers for the Kingdom to come ended at the Cross–they were privileged to see Jesus raised in glory and went to their own deaths to make known what they had come to see and understand. We are those called out (the Church) to continue that witness, live it out, and experience the life after death the Apostles now experience with the Risen Lord.