SLU CFL Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Praying Toward Sunday
Reading I: Exodus 17:8-13
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
Reading II: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
I ask the grace to pray unceasingly.
Opening prayer
Dear God, I am humbly in your presence.
Please open my heart and my mind
so that I may dwell
in your Spirit
in the midst of your assembly.
Second preparation
I take a moment to remember
and look forward to Sunday
I think of the place where I will worship on Sunday.
I recall its many aromas…
I feel myself within it...
I listen…
I look...
I see
the presider
the readers
the people around me
We will be together, before God, in our faith
The Gospel
Luke 18:1-8
Because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her
Persistence
made the crotchety old judge give in
to the bothersome
widow.
Lord,
no secret about it,
you made it crystal clear to us:
petitioning is good,
pestering
is
even
better.
We are to rival the dauntless widow:
pounding on your door.
day and night.
You said you would answer right away.
Remember our hearts,
O God.
Case closed.
Move out, doubt.
The First Reading
Exodus 17:8-13
Meanwhile Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other, so that his hands remained steady till sunset.
God’s staff
weighed too much.
And Moses’ arms got tired.
Aaron and Hur held up his arms.
Lord,
When our hope and energy wane,
let Mike or Katherine or any friend support our arms.
Through your friends help us endure.
Renew our faith.
Bring us
home.
The Second Reading
2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus: proclaim the word
Lord,
We ask for persistence in faith and wisdom,
patience with ourselves and others,
whether convenient
or not.
Closing Prayer
Lord, help me please
to always make a home for you
in my heart
and to receive
within that home
the neighbors
and friends
and especially the strangers
whom I meet.
I am grateful that you are God
and that you include me
in your assembly,
and in your love. Amen
Our Father …
Hail Mary …
Copyright © 2007, The Center for Liturgy at Saint Louis University. All rights reserved.
Permission is hereby granted to reproduce for personal or parish use.
Spirituality of the Readings
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Reading I: Exodus 17:8-13
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
Reading II: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
The Everlasting Arms
We have a bit of a contradiction in Sunday’s readings. One theme is “Don’t get tired when you are praying.” The other is, don’t worry if you do, because there will be support.
Jesus is the one who announces the non-tiredness rule. “Pray always without becoming weary,” he says in the Gospel. Yet most of us have experienced drowsiness when we try to pray. Even Moses gets fatigued as he is doing the equivalent of prayer in the First Reading.
Moses stands on the top of a hill where he can see the fight going on below. In order to give his general, Joshua, victory over enemy forces, he holds out what our reading calls “the staff of God” over the battle. He has continue holding it out, straight-armed, until the combat is completely done because whenever he lowers his arms the enemy starts to win.
It goes on for a long time. Moses’ arms grow exceeding tired. When I was an altar boy I learned what this means by mindlessly holding the book out with extended arms for Father to read from. “Please, please read faster,” my arms screamed. In Moses’ case, Aaron and Hur supported his arms by holding them up and give him a rock to sit on.
Go ahead and get tired, someone will help you (we hope).
But in the Gospel, in order to illustrate why we should keep praying (asking for things), Jesus tells a parable about the unjust judge and a widow who won’t stop asking.* (Notice that Jesus’ real name was Joshua, just like Moses’ general, and that the name “Jesus” is a Greek translation).
With very little to lose, a widow comes to public court every single day and demands justice from the admittedly bored judge. After a while the judge thinks to himself, if I don’t do something this woman will humiliate me in front of everyone. I give up. I will give a ruling in her favor.
The point we are given for this parable is: how much more will God—who certainly is not bored—make sure we have what we need. The widow’s persistence is therefore an example for all of us.
But I have a crucial question which is in the background of these two examples. Did Jesus have someone supporting his arms as he spread them wide upon the cross?
No? Jesus on the cross had come to a place to which Mother Teresa in our own time was called. Even though he was weary unto death and was no longer able to sense any presence of God whatsoever, he still prayed without ceasing. “Father, why have you abandoned me?” is one of the most riveting questions in history. It sets the stage for Mother Teresa’s persistence and fortitude throughout a life devoid of consolation.
God’s love was strong enough to bring Jesus (and Mother Teresa) through when every assurance had been taken away. Jesus/Joshua stretched out his arms in the medieval position of prayer (arms lifted to God), and won a great victory just as Moses and the Old Testament Joshua had. In the process he opened his arms to us so that we can fall into them when we ourselves are so very weary and discouraged.
“The eternal God is your refuge,” Moses said.“Underneath are the everlasting arms” (Dt. 33:27). Can you trust these words?
For an explanation of widows’ very weak status in Israeli society, see Fr. John Pilch’s treatment of the culture of these times: Historical Cultural Context on this website .
Fr. John Foley, S. J. of the Center for Liturgy
Pre-Prayering for Sunday
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Reading I: Exodus 17:8-13
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
Reading II: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
You may want to pray ahead of time about the coming Sunday's Mass. If so, this page is for you. "Getting Ready to Pray" is to help you quiet down and engage your imagination (not just your mind).
Getting Ready to Pray
We have a little phrase about our meeting a person by chance, “We bumped into so-and-so today.” Sometimes we actually do bump into strangers in a crowd, or we bump our heads and even bump into an other car, and not just with our bumpers.
Bumping means we were brought to a sudden halt. We may enjoy the respite or be annoyed at the delay. We do experience little “bumps in the road” as we move through our days and weeks.
Some Thoughts
These days, as we live from and toward the celebration of the Eucharist, we can bump into ourselves as we bump into or are bumped into life’s offerings. Speed bumps are meant to slow us down and usually for the safety of others.
We can take the bumps to slow down, catch our grace and pray with the little ways and large ones, which are there for the taking. All bumps are not mountains.
Larry Gillick, S. J., of Creighton University's Deglman Center for Ignatian Spirituality, writes this reflection for the Daily Reflections page on the Online Ministries website at Creighton.
http://www.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/online.html
The Perspective of Justice
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Reading I: Exodus 17:8-13
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
Reading II: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
Not Losing Heart
Today’s liturgy is about the necessity of praying always and not losing heart. Moses and Aaron discovered something about prayer when they fought the battle with Amalek: As long as Moses kept his hands raised up, Israel had the better of the fight, but when he let his hands rest, Amalek had the better of the fight.
We are today in a mortal struggle with dangerous enemies that threaten to kill us: deprivation, oppression, alienation, and aggression. We must do what God’s people did in the desert. We must engage in battle with the enemy, throwing the best of our forces into the struggle.
And we must hold up our hands in prayer to the God who is our source of power and will give us strength.
The Lord is your guardian; the Lord is your shade; he is beside you at your right hand. We have a God who rescues us from death and feeds us in time of famine.
Our faith in that God should make it possible to fight with confidence against the social evils like poverty and war which often seem to have the better of the fight.
“Peace is but an empty word, if it does not rest upon . . . an order that is founded on truth, built up on justice, nurtured and animated by charity, and brought into effect under the auspices of freedom.
So magnificent, so exalted is this aim that human resources alone, even though inspired by the most praiseworthy good will, cannot hope to achieve it
God himself must come to man’s aid with his heavenly assistance, if human society is to bear the
closest possible resemblance to the kingdom of God.”Pope John XXIII, Pacem in Terris (1963) 167-68
Gerald Darring
Gerald Darring is the developer and webmaster of the important site of Catholic links called Theology Library. For more information go to: http://www.shc.edu/theolibrary/resources/about.htm
Discussion Questions
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Reading I: Exodus 17:8-13
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
Reading II: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
Questions on Sunday's readings for use by discussion groups,
prayer groups, or for individual prayer.
First Reading: Exodus 17:8-13
1. Could Moses have kept his hands raised or “prayed constantly” without the help of his friends? How do your friends help you when you are low on hope or energy? Do you support anyone spiritually?
2. In this reading some people were at battle and some were at prayer. The outcome of the combat was determined by the prayer. How important do you think prayer is to the success of your ministry (even when it is not a battle)?
Second Reading 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
1. What task does prescribe for you in this reading? What instruction book does he give you to carry out the task?
2. Is proclaiming the Word of God central to all the activities of the Church? your parish? your life? Do you proclaim the Word of God in your work?
Gospel Luke 18:1-8
1. Jesus Christ is the one telling the story. What does he want to make clear to you when he mentions “calling out to God day and night” and “praying always without becoming weary”?
2. Jesus promises us that God will answer our prayers speedily. What does that do for your confidence? How does faith relate to persistence?
By Anne Osdieck of the Center for Liturgy at Saint Louis University
A Poem To Sit With
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Reading I: Exodus 17:8-13
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
Reading II: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
Jesus Speaks
But if you
don't open
your eyes
and you don't
open your ears
or taste things
or touch things
or smell things
well then
you will never
know me
all that I
do
is to show
my
love for you
J. Janda's poetry, appears in the paperback, IN EMBRACE.
Working with the Word
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Reading I: Exodus 17:8-13
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
Reading II: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
Focusing the Gospel
Key words and phrases: pray always, call out . . . day and night, answer, find faith
To the point: By remaining persistent in her petition for justice, the widow exemplifies the steadfast faith sought by “the Son of Man.”
Whether the response to our own prayer is delayed or speedily given, faith and hope uphold our efforts to “pray always.”
Connecting the Gospel to the first reading: The obvious connection between the first reading and gospel is that both Moses and the widow persist in their petitions.
The first reading also suggests that, in order to be persistent, sometimes we need the support of others.
Connecting the Gospel to culture: Persistence requires discipline, and rests on the hope that the desired outcome of our efforts will be achieved.
For example, we are persistent in exercise routines, athletic training, musical practice. So it is with prayer: we persist because of our hope that God will hear us.
Understanding Scripture
Persistent prayer: Luke's interest in prayer is evident in parables this week and next. Both parables have their own introductions in which Luke indicates why the story is being told.
This Sunday's parable is “about the necessity . . . to pray always without becoming weary.” The first reading admirably exemplifies this theme. But before we comment on the reading from Exodus, a few comments on the gospel are needed.
As was the case in the parable of the “Prudent Steward” (Luke 16:1-13), the main character used to illustrate the point is not an admirable person.
The “dishonest judge” is not offered as an example of virtue, nor is the relationship of judge-petitioner meant to suggest God-supplicant, with God in the role of the unjust judge.
The argument is this: if even a judge who cares nothing for justice responds to his petitioner, we can be certain that God, who “secure[s] the rights of his chosen ones,” will “see to it that justice is done for them speedily.”
As examples of persistent prayer, Luke offers Jesus, who prayed all night long (Luke 6:12) and who, in the Garden, “prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood” (Luke 22:44).
The Lectionary gives the example of Moses who grows so tired holding up his arms he has to be supported.
Actually, the text does not say that Moses is praying. Ancient interpreters were concerned that this whole episode looked magical and mechanical. They offered various interpretations to clarify the point.
One Jewish source suggested that Moses was pointing to heaven to remind the army to trust in God; another specified that Moses was praying. Christian interpreters (Barnabas and Justin Martyr) pictured Moses, on the hilltop, holding his arms out in the form of a cross.
Further, the commander of Israel's army in the field is “Joshua,” which in Greek is “Jesus.” Thus, the entire episode at Rephidim foreshadows Jesus on the cross who wins the victory.
Hence, this Sunday's readings show that by prayer the army of Israel is delivered, the widow is vindicated, and God's chosen ones receive justice.
Copyright © 2006 by The Order of St. Benedict, Inc., Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. Used by permission from Liturgical Press, St. John's Abbey, P.O. Box 7500 Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7500
Living Liturgy: Spirituality, Celebration, and Catechesis for Sundays and Solemnities Year C - 2007, p. 231. Joyce Ann Zimmerman, C.PP.S, Thomas A. Greisen, Kathleen Harmon, S.N.D. de N., Thomas L. Leclerc, M.S.
The Word Engaged: Meditations on the Sunday Scriptures
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Reading I: Exodus 17:8-13
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
Reading II: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
Perseverance
“Remain faithful.”
The image of Moses looking out over Joshua's battle with Amalek does not easily fade from the mind. There he leans, his back against a rock, outstretched arms propped up by two aides. Whenever Moses lowers his arms for rest, the enemy begins to prevail; so Aaron and Hur stay at his side until sunset and victory, living crutches for his aching shoulders.
Now that's persistence in prayer. Supposedly it is the kind of perseverance that Paul recommends for Timothy—and us all—in our living and giving of the faith. As long as we are laboring at faith, faith is winning. If we give up, faith loses. Therefore Paul advises Timothy to “preach the word, to stay with the task whether convenient or inconvenient, correcting, reproving, appealing, constantly teaching and never losing patience.”
Ah, but those inconvenient times, those days when the battle seems to have no end. Who will prop up our arms when they are wearied with prayer? The distressing thought surfaces: Why even bother to keep the arms held high when it seems that our begging brings no relief?
Jesus told his disciples a parable on the necessity of praying always and not losing heart. A widow pleads before a corrupt judge for vindication against an opponent. Irritation rather than compassion finally moves the judge to help her. The only way to stop her complaining is to give in to her pleading.
And this is a corrupt judge. How different it is with a good and bountiful God, who has given us life. It is God's desire to help us when we call out by night and day; God is eager to answer our cries for help. Thus Jesus asks his hearers, “Will God delay long over them, do you suppose?”
But delay, by and large, is unfortunately what you experience. You wonder if you are even heard. Heaven seems at times to be wired like those labyrinthine voice-mail systems. You keep getting the runaround. You keep hitting the same buttons, hearing the same evasions.
I've spent over a year of days pleading for a miracle. I don't often do that, but the situation merits it. Show your power, O God, to the world. Manifest your love for one of your chosen, young and true, a woman good and generous, now wounded and needy of your assistance. If not now, when? If not here, where? As the days wear on, I fear not only that you delay, but that the plea might never be answered. I grow weary holding up her cause to you.
And this is the complaint of only one—one person in the sea of humanity—with one prayer seemingly unanswered. My little voice is lost in the roar of pleading that resounds through the ages. Families in desperate poverty and loss join the chorus. Chants rise from Dachau, requiems from Rwanda, dirges from the bloody wars, screams from the ghetto. Lost in the din of history is the weeping from battered children, abandoned souls, distraught minds. Who will prop up the outstretched arms of humanity, pained with almost endless ache?
Perhaps Jesus meant the story of the widow to represent the state of humanity itself, suffering in the wound of time. The very condition of our fallen creaturehood needs some final healing. All temporary cures, all wars won, all peace treaties are just signals. There is no earthly final therapy, no definitive victory over death, no endless peace.
The object of our belief is a God free of space's limit, of time's transience. It is the God who deemed us good and abides in that judgment beyond all the evidence we provide to the contrary. It is the God who made our outstretched arms his own in the crucified one, who even in crushing loss said, “Into your hands I commend my spirit.”
What is required of us is to pray always. Our very being must be a prayer, a petition. What is asked of us is that we never lose heart; our very existence must become an act of trust.
There are, when it comes down to it, only two responses to our condition. We can give up hope in humanity and the God who fashioned us, or we can believe that the last word, beyond all our earthly disasters, is the word of love from the one who called us into existence.
Thus, for God incarnate a fundamental concern looms large. Christ asks but one thing of us: not that we comprise an invulnerable army, never wounded or pained, at the end of time, but that we form a vast cavalcade of men and women who, despite the sufferings of history, believe in his promise.
“When the Son of Man comes, will he find any faith on the earth?”
John Kavanaugh, S. J. of Saint Louis
Copyright © 1997 by John F. Kavanaugh. All rights reserved. Used by permission from Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York 10545-0308
THE WORD ENGAGED: Meditations on the Sunday Scriptures Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York (1997), pp. 113-115.
Historical Cultural Context
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Reading I: Exodus 17:8-13
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
Reading II: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
Gospel: Luke 18:1-8|
Shameless Behavior
Cultural insights urge more precise translations of this story to show why its popular title, “The Persistent Widow,” is inappropriate.
THE WIDOW
The word for “widow” in Hebrew means “silent one” or “one unable to speak.” In the patriarchal Mediterranean world males alone play a public role. Women do not speak on their own behalf.
A widow who has lost her husband and spokesperson to death is in an even worse condition if the eldest son is not married.
Younger widows were considered to be very dangerous and were urged to remarry. One of the major concerns in the early Church was determining who truly is a widow.
Because widows were not included in Hebrew laws on inheritance, they became common symbols of the exploited and oppressed. Prophets like Isaiah (Is 1:23; 10:2) and Malachi (Mal 3:5) criticized the harsh treatment they received, and throughout the Bible widows are viewed as being under the special protection of God (Jeremiah 49:11; Psalm 68:6; James 1:27).
Because the widow appears alone in this parable, we can assume that she has no male family member who can appear on her behalf. She is truly alone and therefore in a very vulnerable situation. At the same time, she is desperate. Being already deprived of everything of value in this society, what else does she have to lose? her life?
THE JUDGE
Very likely a local magistrate, this is a stock character for Luke (see Luke 12:14, 58; Acts 18:15). The story asserts (Lk 18:2) and the judge himself admits (Lk 18:4) that he does not fear God and that he is “shameless,” that is, no one can make him “feel ashamed.”
THE CRUNCHER
The widow “keeps coming” to the judge. Remember that this is not a private audience; it is a very public event. The entire community waits, watches, and witnesses the event regularly.
What finally moves the judge is not her persistence but rather that, literally translated, “she will end up giving me a black eye” (Lk 18:5). The Greek word in that verse is borrowed from boxing.
The Greek language also used the word figuratively to mean “blacken one's face,” which means to publicly shame a person. The translation “wear me down” is incorrect and misses the entire point: “shame.”
By publicly badgering the judge every day, the woman repeatedly shames this shameless person. Who knows but, at some point, that she might not even poke him in the eye, literally?
And the judge who boasts that he is insensitive to shaming strategies and cares not a whit about his honor ultimately yields to her pressure.
After all, in a culture where law-courts were not about justice but shaming others no matter what the cost, this judge would be damaged by the gossip report that a woman has shamed him. He'd never live that down and couldn't continue as judge.
MORAL OF THE STORY
Jesus' conclusion is: If a helpless widow can get through to a shameless judge, all the more can a petitioner be heard by an honor-sensitive God.
The moral makes convincing sense in the Mediterranean world but may be less convincing in the modern world.
Many believers remember offering prayers that seem to have gone unanswered. Some spiritual wags have remarked: “Of course God answered. The answer was no.”
This observation may be too simplistic.
Remember that the Mediterranean world is strongly group oriented. The widow's petition was publicly made; for all his bluster and denial, the judge respected public opinion. It was group pressure that made the judge cave in.
Americans are individualistically oriented and generally discount the value of the group. Americans generally address individualistic prayers to God in private. No group hears, no group can help. The widow's strategy is worth pondering.
John J. Pilch of Georgetown University
Copyright © 1997 by The Order of St. Benedict, Inc., Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. Used by permission from The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321
The complete text of the above article can be found in: The Cultural World of Jesus, Sunday by Sunday, Cycle C John J. Pilch. The Liturgical Press. 1997. pp. 152-154.
Thoughts from the Early Church
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Reading I: Exodus 17:8-13
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
Reading II: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
Commentary: Gregory of Nyssa
God will see those who cry to him vindicated.The divine Word teaches us how to pray, explaining to disciples worthy of him, and eagerly longing for knowledge of prayer, what words to use to gain a hearing from God.
Those who fail to unite themselves to God through prayer cut themselves off from God, so the first thing we have to learn from the Word is that we need to pray continually and not lose heart. Prayer brings us close to God, and when we are close to God we are far from the Enemy.
Prayer safeguards chastity, controls anger, and restrains arrogance. It is the seal of virginity, the assurance of marital fidelity, the shield of travelers, the protection of sleepers, the encouragement of those who keep vigil, the cause of the farmer's good harvest and of the sailor's safety.
Therefore I think that even if we spent the whole of our lives in communion with God through thanksgiving and prayer, we should still be as far from adequately repaying our benefactor as we should have been had we not even desired to repay him.
Time has three divisions: past, present, and future. In all three we experience the Lord's kindly healings with us.
If you consider the present, you live in him; if you consider the future, your hope of obtaining what you look forward to is in him; if you consider the past, you would not have existed had you not been created by him.
Your birth is his kindly gift to you, and after birth his kindness toward you continued, since as the apostle says you live and move in him. On this same kindness depend all your hopes for the future. Only over the present have you any control.
Therefore, even if you give thanks to God unceasingly throughout your life you will hardly meet the measure of your debt for present blessings, and as for those of the past and future, you will never find a way of repaying what you owe.
And yet we, who are so far from being capable of showing due gratitude, do not even give thanks to the best of our ability. We fail to set aside, I say not the whole day, but even the smallest portion of the day, to be spent with God.
Who restored to its original beauty that divine image in me that was blurred by sin? Who draws me back to the blessedness I knew before I was driven out of paradise, deprived of the tree of life, and submerged in the abyss of worldliness?
As scripture says, There is no one who understands. If we realize these things we would give thanks continually, endlessly, throughout the whole of our lives./(On the Lord's Prayer: PG 44, 1119.1123-1126)
Gregory of Nyssa (c.33O-395), the younger brother of Basil the Great, chose a secular career and married. Reluctantly, however, in 371, he received episcopal ordination and became bishop of Nyssa, an unimportant town in Basil's metropolitan district of Caesarea.
Gregory was the greatest speculative theologian of the three Cappadocian Fathers, and the first after Origen to attempt a systematic presentation of the Christian faith. Gifted spiritually as well as intellectually, he has been called “the father of Christian mysticism.” ; His spiritual interpretation of scripture shows the influence of Origen.
Journey with the Fathers Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels - Year C, pp. 126-127./ Edith Barnecut, O.S.B., ed.
Preparing for Sunday
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Reading I: Exodus 17:8-13
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
Reading II: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
Bangings
The beginning of the chapter from which our First Reading is taken opens with the grumbling of the followers of Moses, because they were thirsty and God provided for them eventually. They had put God to the test by complaining to Moses who in turn prayed for flowing help.
The second half of this chapter is a win-lose proposition. The Amorites, ancient enemies of Israel, under the leadership of Amalek, came to wage war against God’s people. We hear Moses giving Joshua a battle plan, or at least an instruction to “Go get em!” Moses planned to sit up in the hillside bleachers and watch.
Watching wasn’t enough, so Moses stretched out his arms and somehow that worked to the advantage of the Israelites. His arms in prayer grew weary and when they dropped so did the fortunes of the Israelites. So Aaron and Hur held up the praying arms and the victory in arms was rendered to the Jews.
The Gospel readings for the next two weekends will be centered about the theme of praying. They follow closely the final verses of the previous chapter in Luke’s account. The “kingdom of God” or “the day of the coming” are of considerable interest to the Pharisees and too, the disciples of Jesus. They do not get a direct calendar date answer, but are invited to watch and trust. It is into this context that the subject of prayer is inserted.
Often in the Hebrew Scriptures special care is urged for the traveler, the children, and the widow. Cf. Deut. 27:19
The first verse (Gospel) sets the tone. The story is addressed to the disciples lest they grow tired of the above mentioned watching and praying. The judge of the story is a person known in the community as a person who is to care especially for the “widows.” The widow is seeking the just execution of her rights. The judge pays little attention to her banging at his door until he figures out that she might break down the door and literally “give him a black eye.” So he gives in.
The last verse is the important one for the disciples and for us to hear. “But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
This is not a story about praying until we get what we want. It is an encouragement to pray so that we might wait and watch for all of God’s comings and goings. It is about the aspect of faith which goes beyond believing in God as a dogmatic truism. It is about believing that the loving God cannot not be.
We do ask the very good question about why should we pray at all. Is there a mystical number of askings and we tire God out and bingo, here it is! Is there a certain set of words which trips the benevolent bucket?
People ask me, a priest, to pray for them as if God has a special ear for priestly prayers. I do say I will pray for them, and that is exactly what I do. I pray that they take their situation to a prayer of watching and waiting for God’s presence rather than presents.
What Jesus is asking of the disciples is a faith that combines with hope.
We are generally pragmatists. We put in, time, effort, words, works, thought, creativity and expect, yes, demand results pdq! This is not faith, it is business. Apparently God is presently out of business and into personal and communal relating.
Why are we called to pray? We pray so that we can experience our central human truths. We are not God. We are limited. We desire union, peace, and joy. We love being human until we experience needs, losses, injuries, and fears.
We are invited to kneel right down in the midst of it all and have faith, which is not always pragmatically available and not to our liking. We pray to announce our dependencies and our truth that faith, hope, watching and waiting are those things which Jesus is asking for of the disciples.
We would rather have Jesus open up for business and we would gladly be his business agents, consulters and product managers and sometimes, that is how we do pray.
Manipulated by our bangings, he does move constantly toward us rather than by us and our condition.“Our help is from the Lord who made heaven and earth.
I lift up my eyes toward the mountains; whence shall my help come to me?
My help is from the Lord who made heaven and earth” Psalm 121
Larry Gillick, S. J., of Creighton University's Deglman Center for Ignatian Spirituality, writes this reflection for the Daily Reflections page on the Online Ministries web site at Creighton. http://www.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/online.html
Scripture In Depth
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Reading I: Exodus 17:8-13
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
Reading II: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
Reading I: Exodus 17:8-13
It is puzzling to find this reading appointed for today. It has no apparent connection with any of ther other readings except on one questionable interpretation. It does not follow in sequence with the first reading of the previous Sunday, nor does it appear to be particularly edifying.
Despite the assurance in the second reading that “all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching,” the New Testament writers never make use of this incident. Their use of the Old Testament was definately à la carte (see C. H. Dodd, According to the Scriptures [London: Nisbet, 1952] and B. Lindars, New Testament Apologetic [Philadelphia: Westminster, 1961]).
The passage could be given a typological interpretation of Moses holding up his hands in intercessory prayer (so the Jerome Biblical Commentary), but this interpretation is uncertain.
Moses' action is probably meant to be symbolic, like those of the prophets, which were thought to have potent influence on the course of events (so Peake's Commentary).
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
This beautiful psalm of trust in divine protection needs little comment. If we have accepted the intercessory interpretation of the first reading, this psalm forms an excellent response to God's protection of his Church militant on earth.
In any case, it suggests a reflection on the biblical truth behind the dogma of the “infallibility” of the Church, namely, that God will never finally forsake his Church, however severe his judgment upon it may be from time to time.
His care and protection of the Church is exactly like that shown to the first Israel—never abandoning it, restoring it even after exile.
Reading II: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
This reading is taken from those parts of the Pastoral Epistles that register the concern of the subapostolic age to preserve apostolic truth. Of the whole body of the Church's tradition, Scripture is the most important part.
“The New Testament canon appears not as separate from, or opposed to, the Christian tradition, but rather as an expression of it” (Principles of Church Union, 1966).
One cannot be sure that the “Pastor” (that is, the author or redactor of these letters) meant by “sacred writings” or “scripture” our New Testament as well as the Old Testament. Most likely not, for there is no indication elsewhere in these letters that an embryonic canon of New Testament writings was already in formation.
But certainly, as we read this passage today, it can be legitamately extended to cover both the Old Testament and the New Testament.
While the Pastoral Epistles are in some sense directed to the Church at large, their primary aim is to instruct the Church's ministers in apostolic succession.
Hence one of the most important duties of the “man of God” (this is a term accorded to Moses in the Old Testament tradition, suggesting a possible link with the first reading) is the study of Scripture.
This was nowhere put so well as by Cranmer in the ordinal of the book of Common Prayer, in the bishop's exhortation to those about to be ordained to the priesthood:“And seeing ye cannot by any other means compass the doing of so weighty a work, pertaining to the salvation of man, but with doctrine and exhortation take out of the Holy Scriptures, and with a life agreeable to the same; consider how studious ye ought to be in reading and learning the same Scriptures . . . and for this self same cause, how ye ought to forsake and set aside, as much as ye may, all worldly cares and studies.”
And a little later in the same exhortation: “. . . that by daily reading and weighing the Scriptures, ye may wax riper and stronger in your ministry.”But, as we observed, the Pastorals are also in some sense directed to the Church at large, and this knowledge of the Scriptures, though especially the business of the clergy, is not exclusively confined to them. It is to be shared with the whole people of God.
Exegesis is the special function of the priest, but it is meant to lead the people also to the exegesis of Scripture, and exegesis that is accomplished not merely in the understanding but in the living of the Christian life. |
Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
The story of the unjust judge belongs to a class of parables that feature, not a typical everyday event with a surprising element in it, but a unique occurrence of a striking kind. Such parables are common to, although not confined to, the special Lucan material.
As in the story of the unjust steward (Luke 16:1-9), to which it is akin, the central figure is an unsympathetic character. Not every aspect of his behavior is held up for emulation, but only one particular aspect of it.
Having refused to listen to the woman's case, the judge eventually yields because of her continual pestering and agrees to hear it. Jesus' hearers are meant to infer from this aspect of the judge's behavior that God will indeed intervene and help his Church, even though he seems to forsake it.
By his editorial introduction (v. 1), Luke has shifted our attention away from the judge to the woman, and made her an example of persistent prayer. The Lord's question at the end, however, makes it clear that the judge is meant to be the central figure.
Reginald H. Fuller|
Copyright © 1984 by The Order of St. Benedict, Inc., Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. Used by permission from The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321 Preaching the Lectionary: The Word of God for the Church Today Reginald H. Fuller. The Liturgical Press. 1984 (Revised Edition), pp. 514-516.