PERSISTENCE IN PRAYER

Luke 18:1-8

Today’s readings have a common theme: perseverance in prayer. The first reading talks about the power of prayer experienced by the Israelites when they faced enemies on their way to the Promised Land (Ex 17:8-13). Moses ordered Joshua, his military leader, to fight the enemies, while he would support them with prayer. He went up to a hill and extended his arms in prayer, holding the staff of God in his right hand. In the second reading (2 Tm 3:14-4:2), Paul exhorts Timothy to read the Scriptures from where “we receive the wisdom that leads to faith in Christ Jesus” and equips man and women for the struggle of life. In the third reading (Luke 18:1-8), the Unjust Judge yields to the widow who was nagging him-she was complaining about her adversary.

When I was growing up, children were forbidden to keep pestering their parents for something. When Mom or Dad would say “no”, that was the end of any discussion. In today’s readings especially the gospel, Jesus tells us that with God it is not the case. God does not mind being pestered; on the contrary he prefers it. Why does our Lord tell us to pray to God in that way? A God who knows how many hairs are on the top of our head, a God who knows what we need before we express them, a God who hears every word we say and every thought we have. He does not need reminders to act. He is infinite; he is not like the unjust judge who has no regard for the widow. He loves each of us than we can imagine.  Why is it that he Lord invites us to bother him with our prayer?

One can only speculate why God wants us to pester him. Maybe it is a way of not letting us forget that he is our father and we depend totally on him. Maybe it is a way to get us enter into a more deep relationship with him. Maybe what we are asking for is too big for a request to happen quickly.

The important thing for us to know is that prayer is an act of faith in God and in God’s love. If we look deep into our Christian life, we sometimes give up in prayer. Reasons why we give up praying too soon is because we don’t believe strongly enough; or because we are too spoiled. The time we are living in has spoiled us. We live in the situation where we have everything right there. If the refrigerator is broken, we get a new one. If we want to watch a program on T.V. we just press a button. If we are hungry, we just pop an already prepared dinner in the microwave. If we want to hear good music, we have all the devices and internet for that.  We have emergency phone numbers everywhere. If you want the police or the ambulance, in five minutes they are there. We have everything we want right there and we also think whatever we want from God is right there too. And when it does not come we give up because we think God is deaf, or he is powerless. Our life style has spoiled us; it brought us to understand prayer as a kind of magic; I pray for this, I get it. I not, then forget about prayer. We don’t want the answer from God to be delayed. We want it right there. Or we give up.

When Jesus brings to us this parable of the unjust judge and the persistent widow, he wants us to understand that persistence pays. God will bring us his justice, his blessing, and his help when we need it if we are persistent in our prayer. It is a call to patience, a call to persistence, a call to endurance, and a call to hard work; in other words, it is a call to accept a little pain in the life of our faith.

We live now in a world that offers us quick answers to our problems along with quick responses to our needs. Think of all of the “time saving” devices that surround us. With our smart phones we can communicate with others anywhere in the world with the touch of a few buttons. Any number of products can be purchased with a few strokes on our computer and the following day you have them shipped at your home. The world has shaped us into being impatient people and this life style affects our life of prayer.

The message of the Gospel passage is that victory is the result of persistence; it is a combination of action and prayer. Let us ask the Lord the gift of persistence in our prayer.