When are you most likely to pray? Is it when life is going well or when the rug has been pulled out from under you? For many people prayer comes easily when everything in life is going their way but when disaster strikes, they shut down. For other people when life is running smoothly, they become complacent and forget about their relationship with God. However, when things go wrong, they are down on their knees in a nanosecond imploring God to make things right again. Our approach to prayer says a lot about our relationship with God.
For the
next two weeks St. Luke directs our thoughts towards prayer. Today’s Gospel, the Parable of the Persistent
Widow and the Corrupt Judge (Luke 18:1–8), is about perseverance in prayer. In this humorous story a corrupt judge who
has no fear of God or respect for any human being is badgered by a poor widow
who finally gets what she wants because the judge is afraid she will give him a
black eye. It would be easy to interpret
this parable as encouragement to nag God until we get what we want. However, the corrupt judge is nothing like
God. Jesus uses the judge as an example
of what God isn’t. God does not respond
to us out of fear, frustration or cowardice.
God cannot be manipulated by our wants or our whims. God responds to us out of love; a love so
great we cannot begin to comprehend its vastness. Imagine, if a self-serving, corrupt and
amoral judge can be swayed by a widow’s plea for justice, how much more our
loving and generous God responds to us.
The heroine
of this parable is the persistent widow.
As a poor widow, her survival depended on a just decision, which she
finally got. But if we stop at this
point in the parable, we totally miss the punch line. Which is “But when the Son of Man comes, will
he find faith on earth?" This
question brings us back to our approach to prayer. Prayer requires discipline and
perseverance. It is a habit we must
cultivate because the more we pray (in good times and in bad times) the closer
we come to God. More often than not when
we pray our situations don’t change but we change. Through prayer we stand a chance of seeing
the hand of God working in our lives and then we can pray that perfect prayer
“Thy will be done.”
Lord God,
tireless guardian of your people,
always ready to hear the cries of your chosen ones,
teach us to rely, day and night, on your care.
Support us in our prayer lest we grow weary.
Grant that we will always seek your enduring justice
and your ever-present help.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.
AMEN.
