29th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C: Always Pray and Never Lose Heart!

Always Pray and Never Lose Heart!

“Jesus told his disciples a parable about the need to pray continually and never lose heart.”
Luke 18:1–8

The theme of God’s Word this Sunday is prayer. In the Gospel of Luke, prayer is one of the central and most distinctive themes. More than in any other Gospel, Luke portrays Jesus as a man of prayer and emphasises how he prays at the decisive moments of his mission. In his teaching, he insists that one must pray with persistence and trust.

“Listen to what the unjust judge says!”

“Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God see justice done to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he make them wait long? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Today’s Gospel invites us to reflect on how we pray. Jesus tells his disciples a parable about the necessity of always praying and never giving up. The main characters are a corrupt judge and a poor widow who finally wins her case with the only weapon she has: unrelenting persistence before that dishonest judge!

It is a rather curious parable, for it seems to compare God to a judge (and alas, how often we ourselves speak of God as a judge!), and it uses the expression “to do justice” no fewer than four times.

To avoid misunderstanding, it is important to clarify that God does not present himself as a judge, but as one who has been judged—one who, from the cross, pleads for mercy for all: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Thus, this “doing justice” can only mean exercising his mercy.

We should also note a few delicate points of translation and interpretation. In particular: “Will he make them wait long? I tell you, he will see that they get justice quickly.” An alternative translation might be: “Even if he makes them wait a long time... he will see that they get justice decisively,” though not necessarily “quickly.”

The passage ends with Jesus’ question: “But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Here lies the crucial issue: we, citizens of a technological and secularised world—do we still believe in prayer? Or do we rather place our trust in money, power, our own abilities and securities, or in quicker, more practical means of achieving our aims?

A Few Irreverent Thoughts

But let us return to prayer and to the Gospel as presented in today’s liturgy. Appropriately—or perhaps not—I would like to share with you a few... irreverent thoughts!

Praying to a Snail-God!

“He will see that they get justice quickly!” Are we quite sure of that...?
I don’t know what you think, but my impression, more than once, is that God is... a bit deaf. Or perhaps he has too many files to get through! Or maybe his idea of being “quick” is somewhat different from ours. Psalm 90 tells us: “A thousand years in your sight are like a single day.” But for us human beings, it isn’t so! Our sense of time is very different. As Habakkuk says: “Though it seems to delay, it will surely come, it will not be late!” (Hab 2:3; cf. Heb 10:37 and 2 Pet 3:9). The truth is that to our eyes, God often seems like... a snail!

Biblical and spiritual writers have tried in vain to defend him, but I don’t find their explanations very convincing. The learned Saint Augustine offers one: quia mali, mala, male petimus—our prayers are not granted because we are bad (mali), or because we ask for bad things (mala), or because we ask badly (male).
With all due respect to Saint Augustine, even he doesn’t persuade me. I prefer to believe that God listens to us even when we are bad, when we ask for bad things, or when we ask badly!

So then? I am convinced that God really asks of us an act of faith and a total abandonment to his Wisdom, his Love, his Mystery. When I pray, the Father hears me—always, without fail.

But when it comes to the concrete reality of prayer, the difficulty remains: how should we pray?

Praying Like a Piglet!

I was deeply struck by something a new convert once said to the Portuguese Cardinal Tolentino Mendonça:
— “Father, I pray like a pig!”
— “What?!”
— “Yes, like a pig, because a pig eats everything. That’s what I do: I turn everything into prayer, whatever happens to me.”
I believe that until we come to this experience—praying with our whole concrete life—we haven’t yet found the true key to prayer!

Praying Like a Donkey!

We would all like our prayer to be full of light and consolation, but very often it isn’t.
We were all astonished to learn that the great Mother Teresa of Calcutta, whom one might think touched heaven with her fingertips, lived for fifty years, until her death, in complete spiritual dryness. She, who spent at least three hours a day in adoration!
Another Teresa—Thérèse of Lisieux—said in the final months of her life that she felt as though she were “at the table of sinners and atheists”, tormented by doubt and inner trials. Hardly a path of roses!
And the great Teresa of Ávila said that she prayed for years and years, and that prayer felt to her like straw—as though she were eating straw! Like a little donkey! The donkey would like to graze on the fresh grass of the meadow, but must make do with the straw his Master gives him.

Praying Like a Fish!

You may have heard of the famous book of spirituality The Way of a Pilgrim. This pilgrim, having heard Saint Paul’s exhortation “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17), repeated endlessly the same invocation: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” until it became part of his very breathing.

Personally, I have found great benefit in this form of prayer. In time, each person can choose their own invocation or aspiration, synchronising it with their breathing. I find that two-syllable words make this exercise simpler and more natural. For example: Father (Fa-ther), or Abba (Ab-ba), or Jesus (Je-sus), My God.... Thus I immerse and move myself, like a fish, in the Divine Ocean—breathing in his Peace, his Love, his Grace, and breathing out, expelling the impurities of the heart.

Praying Like a Dormouse!

Two difficulties make prayer somewhat painful: distraction and drowsiness. Both are occasions for practising humility, for our prayer is imperfect and poor.
For years, drowsiness made me angry with myself—until I found peace in realising that the time spent in prayer is above all a sacrifice of time. It is time we have decided belongs to God, and not to anything else. This too is “persevering in prayer” (Rom 12:12).
Looking back, I smile at the hours spent in my wheelchair, alone in the central aisle of our chapel on Via Lilio in Rome, fighting against sleep. I believe that those prayers—many of them “sleeping like a dormouse”—were also kindly heard by the Lord!

Fr. Manuel João Pereira Correia, mccj

Gospel reflection
Luke 18:1-8
Fernando Armellini

Prayer must not be a way to force God to do our will. Why are we invited to turn to him with insistence? What is the meaning of prayer? To these questions, Jesus responds today with a parable (vv. 1-5) and with application to the life of the community (vv. 6-8). The parable starts with the presentation of personages.

The first is the judge whose duty should be that of protecting the weak and the defenseless, instead of being godless and unsympathetic. (v. 2). He himself, in his soliloquy, accepts that the wicked reputation he made of himself has been totally justified: “I neither fear God nor care for about people” (v. 4). Jesus’ description of this man is quite realistic. One would think that it refers to some cases of blatant injustice he has heard or witnessed.

The second personage is the widow. In the Middle Eastern literature and in the Bible she is a symbol of a defenseless person, exposed to abuse; a victim of exactions, who cannot appeal to anyone except to the Lord. Sirach is moved by her condition and threatens anyone who abuses her: “The Lord is judge and shows no partiality. He will not disadvantage the poor, he who hears the prayer of the oppressed. He does not disdain the plea of the orphan, nor the complaint of the widow. When tears flow down her cheeks, is she not crying out against the ones who caused her to weep? Her sorrow obtains God’s favor and her cry reaches the clouds” (Sir 35:12-16).

In the parable, a widow who suffered injustice is put to the scene. Perhaps she was deceived in a transition of inheritance or was a victim of a scam. Perhaps someone has exploited her work; certainly, she has been wronged and claims her rights but no one listens to her. She has no money to pay a lawyer nor knows someone who could plead her cause; no one to advise her. She has a single card in hand and plays it: she pesters the judge repeatedly, with obstinacy, at the cost of looking indiscreet (v. 3).

After having presented the two personages, the parable continues with the soliloquy of the judge. One day he decides to solve the case not because he realizes his misbehavior but he is tired and annoyed by the insistence of the woman. He says: this widow is troublesome, she pesters me and becomes unbearable (vv. 4-5).

The parable concludes here. The following verses (vv. 6-8) contain an actualization. We will comment on it later. First, we try to grasp the meaning and the message of the parable.

Who is the unjust judge? The answer seems obvious, and even embarrassing: it’s God! But it is not so. This personage, in reality, is secondary. He is introduced only to create an unsustainable situation that Jesus wants to draw attention to. It is the condition in which the disciples find themselves in this world that is still dominated by evil and profoundly marked by death.

At the time of Jesus, injustice was rampant in oppressive political, social, and religious systems. Today it is represented by abuses and fraudulence at the cost the poorest, by inexplicable and absurd events and practices that disturb and contradict our longing for life.

What do we do in these situations?

Here is the message of the parable: pray. Jesus has told so—says the evangelist—to inculcate the belief that it is necessary to pray always, without ceasing (v. 1).

Prayer is the greatest means in order not to lose one’s head in the most difficult and dramatic moments when everything seems to conspire against us and the Kingdom of God.

How to be always praying? Prayer should not be identified with monotonous repetition of formulae that weaken both, the one who recites it and the one who listens. I believe—even God may be annoyed, if they are not expressions of an authentic sentiment of the heart (cf. Am 5:23). Jesus calls the attention of the disciples not to pray as the pagans who believe it to be heard for their much speaking (Mt 6:7).

True prayer, that which must never be interrupted, consists in maintaining oneself in constant dialogue with the Lord. Dialogue with him makes us evaluate reality, events, and people with their criteria of judgment. We examine with him our thoughts, sentiments, reactions, and plans.

To pray always means not to take some decisions without first consulting him. If, even for a single moment one would interrupt this rapport with God, if—to use the image of the First Reading—the arms are let down, immediately the enemies of life and freedom will take the upper hand. These enemies are called passions, uncontrolled impulses, and instinctive reactions. They create conditions for foolish choices.

It is prayer that allows, for example, to control impatience in wishing to establish the Kingdom of God at all costs and by any means. It is prayer that blocks us to force consciences and teaches us to respect the freedom of each person.

The conclusion of the passage (vv. 6-8) is rather enigmatic. The last phrase: “but when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” seems to insinuate the doubt on the final success of Christ’s work. To understand it, it is necessary to verify what he is speaking about and who are listening to him. Then a correction to the translation must be also made.

It is the Lord who talks and the Gospel of Luke indicates that it is the Risen One. He turns to the chosen ones, the persecuted Christians of Luke’s community. He wants to give an answer to their faith dilemma.

We are in the 80s of the first century, when, in Asia Minor, a very violent persecution started. Domitian claims that all should adore him as a god. The pagan religious institutions, servile and flattering, adequately give in and support the maniacal eccentricity of the sovereign. The Christians do not. They cannot—as the Book of Revelation says (Rev 13)—bow before the “beast” (the Domitian divo) and for this, they undergo harassment and discrimination.

Now it’s clear who the widow of the parable is: it is the church of Luke, the church whose Spouse is taken away; it is this community that awaits his coming, even though she may not know the day or the hour of his return and that each day, with insistence, she is pleading: “Come Lord Jesus” (Rev 22:20).

To this invocation, the Lord gives a consoling answer, with a rhetoric question, “And will not God give justice to his chosen ones who day and night cry to him” followed by a peremptory affirmation; Yes, I tell you: He will bring justice to them soon; even if he makes them wait for long.” You may have noted that the question mark at the end of the sentence has been removed in my translation. This alteration makes the meaning of the text more coherent.

A major temptation of Christians is discouragement and distrust in the face of a long wait for the Spouse who delays and tolerates injustice.

The last sentence: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” does not refer to the end of the world but to the saving arrival of Christ in this world.

Before the inexplicable slowness of the judge, the widow could have resigned and despaired to the fate of not obtaining justice one day. The Lord alerts the community against this danger represented by discouragement and resignation of the thought that the Spouse is not coming any more to render justice. He will surely come, but will he find his chosen ones ready to welcome him? To someone, his slowness could cause a loss of faith!

Fernando Armellini
Italian missionary and biblical scholar