October 16, 2022, Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
Today’s readings provide us with wise advice concerning persistence in prayer. It begins with Moses in the First Reading from Exodus (Exod. 17:8-13). The setting is the time period after the escape from Egypt when the Israelites, with the help of the Lord and Moses, fled their imprisonment from slavery and then wandered the desert around Mt. Sinai for forty years.
For this entire time God remained with, guided, and ensured the safety of His chosen people. When they complained about their hunger and thirst God provided them quail and manna to eat and water from the barren land to drink. When they encountered conflict from enemy nations God fought with them to ensure their success.
This is the scenario in today’s reading. The Israelites have encountered the Amalekites who have come out to wage war against them. Moses instructs Joshua to go into battle with a few chosen warriors while Moses climbs to the top of a hill where he keeps his hands raised during the battle. When his arms begin to weaken, Aaron and Hur bring Moses a rock to sit on and support his hands, keeping them raised toward God.
Moses’ hands were stretched up in obedience, worship and prayer to God who could deliver Israel from defeat and into victory. It is like the priest at Mass who often raises his hands during prayer. It is a holy external action which expresses the intention of worship and openness to God. And it is a sign of surrender to the holy will of God. As long as Moses’ hands were raised, the Israelites dominated the battle. But when Moses lowered his hands, Amalek prevailed.
In the Gospel from Luke (Lk. 18:1-8), Jesus presents this lesson in the form of a parable. Its meaning is made clear in the first verse of the passage: “Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary” (Lk. 18:1). He describes a judge in a certain town who is strong-willed and unafraid to ignore the requests of his subjects.
In this particular case, it is a widow who is constantly harassing the judge to make a ruling in her favor against an adversary. The judge ignores the widow for a long time, but finally decides to rule in her favor thinking that she might physically attack him if she is ignored for much longer. Jesus then compares the judge to the Lord. He 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.” (Lk. 18:7-8a). If God’s people pray continually, Jesus assures them that God will act suddenly or quickly.
What does this mean for us? Should we pray the Rosary every day for a particular request to God? Should we recite the Liturgy of the Hours or the Daily Office every day if there is a problem or concern that we need help with from God? Should we attend the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament whenever it is offered if things are going badly for us? Or should we attend daily Mass when we experience real trouble in our lives? The answer is we may do any or all of these or we may choose instead to pray informally, using our own words to express our petitions and intercessions, requests or thanksgiving.
Regardless of the method, it is important to pray unceasingly to the Lord. Through prayer we enter into communication with God, and we invite God into our lives. As we grow in our prayer lives, we become more aware and more engaged with what God is doing for us.
Sometimes we will go long stretches praying for a certain intention and grow weary. We feel as if God is not listening or responding to our prayer. But God always listens to us when we pray. It is important to remember that God’s answer to our prayer does not always come in the form we expect. We have to be willing to be open-minded and open-hearted to God’s expression of an answer to us, to perceive and accept the subtlety of His response. Sometimes we have to do less talking and more listening to God and we have to follow the advice of St. Paul, “be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient.” (2Tim. 4:2).
