29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Exodus 17:8-13
Psalm 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
Luke 18:1-8
Working out the body requires serious endurance, as does the training of the soul. Military-grade exercises are crucial for spiritual warfare, too.
Prayer demands a resilient, determined grit, exerting effort fitting to the incalculable value of our eternal life.
Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. If a frail widow could wear down a godless magistrate, it will succeed for us before our loving Father: “because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.” Christ promises this by posing the explanatory rhetorical question-and-answer, “Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it.”
The scene from Exodus also presents the long-suffering dimension of prayer, even paralleling it with the ongoing battle below: “As long as Moses kept his hands raised up, Israel had the better of the fight, but when he let his hands rest, Amalek had the better of the fight.”
This gesture of intercession from Moses signifies his reliance on the Lord through the power granted him, symbolized by his miraculous staff: “I will be standing on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” His elevated purview also associates him with proximity to Heaven.
The very familiar Psalm text naturally comes to mind: “I lift up my eyes toward the mountains; whence shall help come to me? My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Although the great leader Moses gazes out, appraising all of creation, he humbly recognizes that the fate of his people remains under its designer’s providence.
The war raged until evening: “Meanwhile, Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other, so that his hands remained steady till sunset.” But the Psalmist promises that the Lord “is beside you at your right hand. The sun shall not harm you by day, nor the moon by night” for “he neither slumbers nor sleeps, the guardian of Israel.”
Our Lord (whom the Gospels tell us prayed all night, as well as His apostles) assures us of this same constant protection if we imitate the practice: “Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night?” We have a certain claim to His blessings, “that justice is done for them,” but that imposes onerous full-time responsibilities upon us.
Minimal, relaxed, easy, stress-free, gentle, effortless prayer doesn’t seem to fulfill the biblical mandate then. Scripture is itself an active reality: “The word of God is living and effective, discerning reflections and thoughts of the heart,” we are reminded in the Alleluia verse from the Letter to the Hebrews.
St. Paul instructs us in his final letter, written in Rome before his martyrdom, to “proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.” Interpretation/application of the Bible is described as hard labor: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” A few verses later, we hear Paul’s litany of his busy pastoral program: “teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, and sufferings.”
What nonstop support underlies all those apostolic endeavors but prayer? We only thus win the war for holiness by God’s grace. Victorious entrance into Heaven for those who stay dedicated is biblically guaranteed by the authority of the Lord Himself: “Remain faithful to what you have learned and believed, because you know from whom you learned it, and that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
The response is assured “speedily.” How long exactly must we keep up this strenuous prayer? Until the Second Coming. We are charged in dire apocalyptic terms to expect “Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead.”
No single soul can hope to accomplish this alone; we need to lift one another up at times like Aaron and Hur did for Moses. Thankfully, together we can continuously offer God worship as is His due. The Messiah’s haunting question still reechoes as His Church carries on the strain of praise throughout the ages: “But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Related to: For us disciples to be saved, we must be disciplined – Catholic Times: Read Catholic News & Stories