Nov. 12, 2022 – Luke 18:1-8
The Gospel of Luke is also called the “Gospel of Prayer.” In this Gospel, in fact, Jesus prays and gives teachings on prayer more than in the others. Today Jesus tells his disciples a parable about the need for perseverance in prayer, a theme that is very present in Paul’s letters.
The parable presents a totally corrupt judge, who fears neither God nor man. It also presents a widow, probably the most helpless, the most miserable and the least pitied in the society of those days. She has lost her husband, remarrying is out of the question, she has lost the support of her own family and her husband’s family, and there is nothing comparable to social welfare to rely on. A parable that, as usual, unsettles us, invites us to change our perspective and, in the end, culminates in a sort of
“twist of fate.” This ending spurs us to look at ourselves, our deep choices and our relationship with God. The parable of the widow and the unrighteous judge is, by Luke’s explicit statement that somehow gives us its title (“Jesus told his disciples a parable about the need to pray always without tiring”), a parable about prayer. In Luke, in chapter eleven, Jesus has already told, in the teaching of the Lord’s Prayer, what to ask, then in the parable of the importunate friend how to ask. And here? Let us ask: who is the protagonist of the parable? It seems to me that it is neither the widow with her insistence nor the unjust judge. Instead, everything focuses on the listeners, on us; Jesus asks a question that takes us to the heart of the Gospel page: the important thing is the faith of those who pray! God is just and will do justice, but do we trust Him, His justice, His timing, His ways? That is why today’s page ends with a question that, on a superficial reading, seems to rain down from above and seems to approach the parable with a labile logic. Instead, it does not! Here is the question, “But will the Son of Man when he comes find faith on earth?” A question that, surprisingly, leads us to the heart of ourselves, of our lives as believers. Exactly: “of believers” …The area of prayer is not so much the insistence and being importunate, what really matters is to ask whether behind the insistence, behind the perseverance, there is true faith on the part of the praying person! Praying without tiring is then an icon of faith that is nourished by the certainty of God’s justice and that does not tire of being in the presence of the God who is true Father and who desires nothing more than to do justice to his faithful!
Upon his return, the Son of Man wants to find this faith; may the question with which this passage from Luke concludes be like a hammer in the depths of each of us…it is an essential question because faith is the space of the reception of salvation, it is the “place” where all personal fulfillment is at stake!
For good workers…
– The parable teaches us that our prayers do not change God’s will. On the contrary, they bring our hearts in line with His purposes. Sincere and persistent prayer makes us ready to accept and live out His will with love and trust.
– In Genesis we are told that we are made in the image and likeness of God. Perhaps our prayer could be: Dear God, help us to find your image in us and make us more like you!
Fr Joby Kavungal RCJ
TREZZANO SUL NAVIGLIO – MILAN