Have you ever tried to obtain something from someone who showed no interest in your request? Worse still the person was not interested in YOU! This can be a most frustrating situation as many of us have made the experience. In such a situation, some people will simply walk away convinced that there is nothing to be done. Others, of a more stubborn inclination, will keep on asking, determined to get what they want. They will keep on begging and literally ‘pestering’ the one from whom they expect to get something.
The gospel text of this Sunday (29th, Year C – Lk.18:1-8) gives us the example of such a person – a widow who wants a wicked judge to grant her what she has a right to get from an opponent. The scene is described vividly and the message is clear. In fact, before we even hear, or read, the story itself, we are told its purpose. Jesus wants us to understand “the need to pray continually and never lose heart.”
Praying is already an activity which many of us do not find easy… and we are told that we should pray continually and never lose heart. Persistence is what obtained for the widow what she wanted. Of course, we are NOT to imagine God as a wicked judge – he is a most loving Father – but he likes to see us show the same perseverance, the same insistence, the same, yes, stubbornness in asking. Not for his own sake but for ours!
The words of Jesus concluding the story are words of promise. “Now will not God see justice done to his chosen who cry to him day and night even when he delays to help them? I promise you he will see justice done to them.” What often bothers us, obviously, is… the delay! But this is precisely where perseverance comes in!
Source: Images: claygentry.com www.etsy.com