Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Last week, there were some distractions in my spiritual life a little bit. As I have said before, I find early mornings to be the best time for quite time in prayer. In the last few weeks, however, I have found waking up in the morning to be very difficult. I have had to drag myself to my prayer corner. The other distraction was sports. India took on Australia in cricket. When I get up at 5:30 in the morning, the game is just ending in India. Those of you who love sports, you know there is nothing like catching up the last bit of the game. If you are curious, no, I did not give up into these temptations. However, I did ask myself a few questions as I sat in prayer. Why am I doing this? Why do I spent quite time in prayer? What am I getting out of this? I will give you my answer in a few moments. Let me first provide the larger theme of today’s reading.
As Jesus himself says in today’s gospel, the theme of today’s readings is about the necessity to pray always without becoming weary (Lk 18:1). There are common strands between the first reading and the Gospel reading. Each of the readings show us the connection between three things: God, the human person and the situation confronting the human persons. Thus, in the first reading there is God, there is Moses and there is the battle against the Amalekites. In the Gospel reading, there is the judge who cared about nothing and nobody, there is the widow, and there is situation where the widow faced an adversary. In each of these situations, the human person is looking for help from God for facing the adversity. What are the readings really saying to us today?
I think the scriptures offer three points for reflection.
1. First of all, the readings are defining prayer. Based on today’s readings, I would like to define prayer as the link between three things – God, our life situation, and me. The most obvious elements among these three apparently is our self-awareness. Each day we get up and we are aware of our own presence. Second is our life situation. I am reminded of the 33 miners and their spectacular rescue from half-a-mile under the ground. I am sure that each of us finds ourselves facing some challenging situation each day. Be it friendship, family, health, finances, or work, each day we face challenges. Prayer simply means that we allow God to be the link between our life situation and us. The miners trapped in the Chilean mines are a great example of this. Each of them, as they came out wore a T-shirt that had Ps 94:5 printed on it. It read, “Whose hand holds the depths of the earth; who owns the tops of the mountains.” Prayer does not necessarily mean that we have our way in this situation. Prayer means that we allow God to be God in this situation.
2. Second, prayer is not only about changing the situation. Prayer changes us. I find the first reading a little comical. The Israelites had the better of the battle against Amalek, as long as Moses had his hands lifted up. As soon as he began to lower it, they began to lose. So they found men who would hold Moses’ hands up. No book on war strategy has this one in it. In the gospel, the widow was heard for her stubborn persistence. My interpretation of these events is that both Moses and the widow thought that their action was having an influence on God. In fact, the effect of their action was on them. By keeping his hands raised Moses learned to depend on God and to keep his eyes focused on God. By constantly nagging the judge the woman learned perseverance and persistence. The only unchanging factor is God. Even in my own life, I know how many times I have wanted things to change without allowing for change in my life. Prayer does not always change things, but it certainly does change us. So for example, we cannot remain in serious sin and expect change. We cannot continue to hold grudges in our hearts and expect change. We cannot be lazy and casual about our relationship with God and expect change. Prayer changes us before it can change the situation.
3. My final point is the answer to the question that I raised at the beginning of this homily. The question that came to my mind was, “Why do I pray?” Over the last two weekends, the readings have led us to reflect on faith. And I had preached in my homilies of faith as the gratitude we feel in our hearts that we know God. My answer to the questions was very similar. I spend time with God in prayer because prayer is the expression of my faith in God. Prayer is the expression of my love for God. Prayer is allowing God to be God in my life. Praying is being who I am in the presence of God. I do not pray because I need things from God. I pray because I need God. I need God more than my morning sleep; I need God more than cricket. I believe with my whole being that without God my life is senseless. Prayer is the expression of that belief.
As we gather around this altar, let us do us in the realization that the Eucharist is the greatest prayer. We come each weekend and bring our daily personal prayer and give it to Jesus who then offers them to the Father. Here, in the Eucharist, God comes to us as God and we come before God as we are. In this being in the presence of God we find our own salvation.
Fr. Satish Joseph