29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Oct. 20, 2013
Luke 18: 1-8
Holy Cross, Fairfield, Conn.
“Jesus told his disciples a parable about the
necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary” (Luke 18: 1).
Over the last 2 months, most of our gospel
readings have included a parable: guests
at a wedding banquet; a man building a tower and a king preparing for war; the
lost sheep, lost coin, and lost sons; an untrustworthy steward; a rich man and a
poor beggar; a servant doing his duty.
The parables illustrate for us God’s mercy, our need to repent, our
obligations toward one another, etc.
Today we hear a parable about prayer—constant,
persistent, untiring prayer.
There are 2 characters in this parable, a judge
and a widow. They’re typical characters
of ordinary life in Jesus’ time, not only in the Middle East but anywhere, and
the scenario that Jesus describes could still take place in many places in the
Middle East. In fact, a late-19th-century
traveler in Mesopotamia reports a scene remarkably like the one that Jesus has
us imagine:
Immediately on entering the gate of the city on one side stood … a large
open hall, the court of Justice of the place.
On a slightly raised dais at the further end sat the judge, half buried
in cushions. Round him squatted various
secretaries and other notables. The
populace crowded into the rest of the hall, a dozen voices clamouring at once,
each claiming that his cause should be the first heard. The more prudent litigants joined not in the
fray, but held whispered communications with the secretaries, passing bribes,
euphemistically called fees, into the hands of one or another. When the greed of the underlings was
satisfied, one of them would whisper to the [judge], who would promptly call
such and such a case. It seemed to be
ordinarily taken for granted that judgment would go for the litigant who had
bribed highest. But meantime a poor
woman on the skirts of the crowd perpetually interrupted the proceedings with
loud cries for justice. She was sternly
bidden to be silent, and reproachfully told that she came there every day. “And so I will,” she cried out, “till the
[judge] hears me.” At length, … the
judge impatiently demanded, “what does that woman want?” Her story was soon told. Her only son had been taken for a soldier,
and she was alone, and could not till her piece of ground; yet the tax-gatherer
had forced her to pay the impost, from which as a lone widow she could be
exempt. The judge asked a few questions,
and said, “Let her be exempt.” Thus her
perseverance was rewarded. Had she had
money to fee a clerk, she might have been excused long before.[1]
In the Middle East honor is one of the highest
values, and most people will do anything to preserve their honor and their
family’s honor; bringing shame on the family or oneself is to be avoided at any
cost. But the judge in the parable is
corrupt: he “neither fears God nor
respects any human being” (18:2). Right
and wrong, justice and impartiality mean nothing to him. The Scriptures mean nothing to him—there is a
long legal and prophetic tradition that mandates special care for orphans and
widows. He is utterly without shame,
cares not a whit about his reputation, his honor. We may well suspect that the widow can’t
obtain “a just decision against [her] adversary” (18:3) because she has no
money to offer as a bribe, or her adversary has offered more than she can.
The widow is a desperate woman. That she shows up in court, that alone, shows
how destitute and alone she is; her being in court is in itself something of a public
scene. As you know from current events,
in most of the Middle East women have no place in public life. Such as it is today, it was worse in ancient
times. This widow has no male in the
family who can go to court for her and obtain a hearing. Her only recourse is to show up in court day
after day and create a scene.
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| Credit: Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, Peru |
Finally, after “a long time” (18:4), the corrupt
judge feels that he must give in to her and render justice to her “lest she
come and strike me” (18:5). The Greek
word that St. Luke uses here is a prizefighting term that means literally “to
strike a blow under the eye,” or we might say, “to give a black eye.” Metaphorically, it means to batter someone
down, to wear someone out, and so most translations say something like, “she’s
going to wear me out with her persistence.”
One commentator says the verse basically means, “lest she give me a
headache!”[2] The widow’s becoming a real pain in the neck. Any parent who’s had to deal with kids in the
days before Christmas, or with a 17-year-old wanting the car keys, can
appreciate the judge’s situation.
So, Jesus says, because of the widow’s
persistence the dishonest judge does what he should’ve done in the first
place. And Jesus applies that to our
prayers to God: “Won’t God secure the
rights of his chosen ones [his elect] who call out to him day and night?”
(18:7). There are 2 suppositions
there: 1st, God stands in contrast to
the judge; he certainly is not corrupt or wicked. 2d, God’s chosen ones call out, i.e., pray,
day and night, persistently, like the widow.
Picture St. Monica praying for years
for the conversion of her son Augustine.
Picture Mother Teresa praying for years despite the interior emptiness
and utter absence of God that she felt.
Now, what are God’s elect to pray for so
persistently? The widow sought justice
or vindication against an adversary; the Greek word means “one opposing
another’s right or justice.” We, too,
have an adversary who opposes our justice, or in Christian terms, our
justification, our being made right in God’s eyes. That adversary is Satan, a word that means
“opponent” or “adversary.” If we are to
win out over this adversary, we must persist in prayer. If we are to become just in God’s eyes, i.e.,
have our sins erased and be made clean and holy, we must persist in prayer,
must “call out to God day and night” for mercy, for strength, for help.
We might have many particular prayers that we
want to make to God—you can easily think of the many things you pray for. Those, God does not necessarily guarantee to
you that he will answer in the way you want.
(Spiritual writers will tell you that God will answer with what you
need, not with what you want.) But we
all need, and I trust we all want, to reject our sins, to be forgiven, to be
healed of the deepest wounds in our hearts.
We want to become holy and be saved, to be numbered among those whom we
will celebrate in 13 days: all the
saints. If we pray sincerely and
persistently for God to come to us, to fill our hearts, to forgive us and make
us whole, to put us and keep in a good relationship with him, “I tell you, he
will see to it that justice is done for them speedily” (18:8). God earnestly desires our salvation—which is
the entire purpose of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus
Christ—so he cannot refuse our heartfelt prayer.
[1]
H.B. Tristram, Eastern Customs in Bible
Lands (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1894), pp. 228-229, quoted in
Kenneth E. Bailey, Through Peasant Eyes
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), p. 134.
[2]
Bailey, p. 136.
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