Introduction: Today’s readings are mainly about prayer -- perseverance in prayer, constancy in prayer and trust in God as we pray. They are also about the trustworthiness and justice of God, a justice that reaches out to the poor and the weak, enabling them to fight against injustice. By introducing the parable of the unjust judge and the persistent widow in today’s gospel, Jesus emphasizes the “necessity of praying always and not losing heart.” Jesus presents the widow in today’s gospel as a model of the trust and tenacity with which his disciples are to pray. She was asking for something which God would certainly want for her - justice. In the first reading Moses is presented as making tireless intercessions for his people while Joshua leads them in battle against Amalek. Both Moses and the widow teach us how we should pray. In the second reading St. Paul instructs Timothy to persevere in his ministry of preaching the word of God in all circumstances and to use it to “correct, reprove and appeal with patience.
Exegesis: The context: When Luke wrote this Gospel, the Parousia or Second Coming of Jesus had been delayed beyond what the early church had expected. In addition, the church was experiencing persecution from both the Jews and the Romans. The persecuted early Christians were finding it increasingly difficult to maintain their faith. Hence today’s gospel lesson addresses the issues of faith in difficult times and reassures the disciples that God is listening to their persistent prayers and will grant them justice and vindicate their faith in the end. The Gospel today seems to be a classical example of the link between perseverance and blessing. Luke sets the story in the context of a challenge Jesus makes to his disciples to pray always and not lose heart – to persevere and receive God’s blessing.
The historical background: This parable is based on the corrupt Roman legal practices prevalent in Palestine at the time of Jesus. The judge in the parable was not a Jewish judge because ordinary Jewish disputes were judged before the Jewish elders. If a matter were to be arbitrated, there would be a panel of three judges: one chosen by the plaintiff, one by the defendant, and one independently appointed. In Deut. 1:16-17, Moses charged the judges to render fair and honest decisions regardless of the wealth or social standing of the petitioner. Hence the judge in the parable was one of the paid magistrates appointed either by Herod or by the Romans. Since such judges were avaricious, corrupt, and without fear of God or the public, people called them “Dayyaneh Gezeloth”, robber judges.
Although the Hebrew Scriptures demand protection for widows, orphans, and aliens (Deut 10:18-19, 24:17-21, Exod 22:22-24), the widows were not included in Hebrew laws on inheritance and they were looked upon as common symbols of the exploited and the oppressed. Prophets like Isaiah (1:23; 10:2) and Malachi (3:5) criticized the harsh treatment widows received, and throughout the Bible widows are viewed as being under the special protection of God (Jer 49:11; Ps 68:5; Jas 1:27). The widow in Jesus’ parable was the symbol of all who were poor, defenseless, and without hope of ever extracting justice. Her opponent was probably rich, crooked and influential.
Persistence of the widow: But the widow had one powerful weapon—a dogged persistence which gave the judge no peace. Her persistence was a very public event and the entire community witnessed the widow’s repeated encounters with the judge. By publicly badgering the judge every day, the woman was trying to shame this shameless person. Finally the unjust judge was forced to yield. Hence this parable is not only about the efficacy of persistent prayer, but also about the character of God, His trustworthiness and justice, a justice that reaches out to the poor and the weak, enabling them to fight against injustice. God’s justice goes far beyond human limits and can bring fullness of life to the poorest and the most vulnerable people in our world. Jesus ends the parable with a question: Will his followers continue to have confidence in God’s justice until He comes again in Final Judgment?
God is not being likened to an unjust judge but contrasted. God is not compared to the unjust judge, needing to be bribed or forced by our persistent prayers to get what we need. The main thrust of the parable appears to be the conclusion. “And will not God vindicate his called people, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay over them? I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily.” The answer is God hears the cry of the people and God answers that cry speedily although that does not seem to fit with our actual experience of unanswered prayers even in our dire needs. How, then, does He answer? It is by His active presence in our lives. The truth is that God is intimately present in all the turmoil and terror of life, vindicating those who cry out in faith. God is in fact with us, even before the cry for help leaves our mouth. God is present, experiencing our pain and distress, and Jesus is the guarantee. In his ministry Jesus shared the immediacy of God’s love for the deaf, blind, diseased, mentally ill, poor, weak, despised, alone, crippled, the dead and those who mourn them. His response to the cries of people was speedy. Then Jesus himself seemed to be God-forsaken on the cross. God was in Jesus, bearing our sins and carrying our sorrows. The same God is with us, savouring the joy of our laughter and feeling the agony of pain and grief, as our Immanuel: God-with-us.
Faith is the condition for God’s vindication. Luke seems to be the first author of the Christian Scriptures who concludes that he and everyone in his community will die a natural death before Jesus returns in the Parousia (Lk 18: 1-8). That’s why throughout his gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, he emphasizes persistence in faith. In other words, God will take care of God’s obligations and our job is to take care of our obligations. God will vindicate us, His persecuted community, provided we stay watchful and persevere in faith and prayer. We have to trust God to bring about that which He has promised. In praying we show our confidence that our God hears, and cares, and acts. When we pray for something as essential as “daily bread” we are making a rather amazing statement of faith in the goodness of a loving and providing God. Jesus calls us, with the example of the widow and the unjust judge, to have faith, to trust that God in his goodness will bring about the justice we all seek, the blessing we all require. But we should continue in prayer for these things until they happen as an expression of our trusting faith and dependence on God. Thus the purpose of all our prayers is the augmentation of our trusting faith in a loving and caring God our Father.
Life messages: 1) To make our prayers effective, we do not have to nag God. Jesus is talking about fidelity to God as a motive for our prayer. If the persistent pleading of a helpless widow can be so fruitful, how much more will the persistent pleading of the Christian disciples achieve! In fact, long, meaningless prayers -- although a natural expression of our misery -- should not be used as bargaining chips with God. The parable teaches that our prayers do not change God's will. Instead, they bring our hearts into line with His purposes. There is no question that persistent prayer -- continuing communion with God -- reshapes our hearts to God's original design. Such prayer does not change God--instead, it changes us. Sincere and persistent prayer makes us ready to accept His will. It moulds and conforms our hearts to God’s wishes and plans, clearing clogged channels to receive God's mercies. Blessed Mother Teresa insisted that her sisters begin each day with the bedrock of solid prayer, including Mass and meditation, even before tending to the needs of the poor. She knew that without perseverance in prayer, her sisters could not persevere in the arduous task of caring for the poorest of the poor. In Priests for the Third Millennium Monsignor Timothy Dolan observes that prayer must become like eating and breathing. We have to eat daily, not stock up on food on Monday, and then take off the rest of the week. Do we take ten deep breaths and say, “Good, that’s over for a while, I won’t have to breathe for a couple of hours?”
2) We should not expect to get whatever we pray for. This parable does not suggest that God writes a blank check, guaranteeing whatever we want whenever we want it in the form we ask for. We prefer to get from God what we want when we want it, as we expect the physician to give us instant relief, our technology to give us instant communication and the stock market to give us instant wealth. But we conveniently forget the fact that often a loving father has to refuse the request of a child, because he knows that what the child asks would hurt rather than help him (e.g., a knife). God is like that. We do not know what is to happen in the next hour, let alone the next week, or month, or year. Only God sees time whole, and, therefore, only God knows what is good for us in the long run. That is why Jesus said that we must never be discouraged in prayer. Instead we have to leave it to God’s decision saying, “Thy will be done.” What is asked of us is that we never lose heart. Instead, our very existence must become an act of trust and prayer.
Anecdote: Tom’s pocket knife: Tom wanted a pocketknife, a Swiss army knife, for his birthday. He told his mother, his dad, his grandma and his grandpa too. He told aunts and uncles and even his teacher at preschool that he was going to get a pocket knife for his birthday. But when his birthday came, he didn't get the knife. How do you think he felt? So Tom started thinking about Christmas. Christmas was a long way away, but he told everybody that he was going to get a knife for Christmas. But the big day did arrive and Tom eagerly opened every present. But there was no knife. Why do you think that Tom hadn't got a knife? But Tom never gave up the desire. When he got old enough to handle a knife safely and show his parents that he was really responsible in taking care of things he got his knife. His greatest wish came true.
When we pray to God, we pray for people and things and sometimes it seems that God has heard our prayer right away. Other times it seems that God does not even hear us. It seems that God has forgotten us. It seems that we are wasting our time even praying to God. But, like Tom's parents, God hears us. God answers every prayer. Sometimes though, like Tom's parents, God feels that we are not ready for the thing we want. But God wants us to keep on praying as well as listening to him speaking to us through His word in the Holy Scriptures, and never to give up looking and asking for the very best things for ourselves and for other people.