Commentary to the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time-Year C

AT TIMES IT IS EASY TO LOSE ONE’S FAITH

Introduction

A wise person of the Old Testament summarizes the accumulated life experiences: “From my youth to old age, I am yet to see the righteous forsaken or their children begging for alms. For the Lord loves justice and right and never forsakes his faithful ones. The wicked instead will perish and their breed will be cut off” (Ps 37:25,28).

Beautiful words; would we subscribe to them without some reservation? Who does not know examplesthat contradict it? Two weeks ago, we heard Habakkuk lamenting with the Lord. He said: “In the country, the evil ones dominate, doing all sorts of injustice, and You, Lord, do not intervene.”

One finds stupendous invocations to God in the Bible, asking his intervention when life on earth becomes intolerable. The Psalmist implores: “But you, O Lord, who have seen, do not keep silent. Do not stand far from me. Stir yourself up, stand up for my rights and my cause, my God and my Lord” (Ps 35:22-23). In the Book of Revelation, the martyrs raise their cry to the Lord: “Holy and righteous Lord, how long will it be before you render justice and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?” (Rev 6:10).

Why is it that God does not always respond and immediately to these pleadings? If, although he could, hedoes not end injustice, could he be considered innocent? How would he justify his silence? 

To internalize the message, we repeat: “Even if I am not always aware, you, Lord, protect me in the shadow of your wings.”

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First Reading: Exodus 17:8-13a

In those days, Amalek came and waged war against Israel. Moses, therefore, said to Joshua, “Pick out certain men, and tomorrow go out and engage Amalek in battle. I will be standing on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” So Joshua did as Moses told him: he engaged Amalek in battle after Moses had climbed to the top of the hill with Aaron and Hur. 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. Moses’ hands, however, grew tired; so they put a rock in place for him to sit on. Meanwhile Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other, so that his hands remained steady till sunset. And Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. —The Word of the Lord.

 The Amalekites were a nomad tribe who lived in the desolate region of the Sinai desert. The Israelites have hated fewer people than the Amalekites. They committed an unforgivable crime. The Israelites were on their journey towards the Promised Land. They had to pass through the Amalekites’ territory. Tired of the journey, they asked for some water, and the Amalekites, instead of helping them, assaulted and killed the weakest of the caravan’s rear (Deut 25:17-19).

Today’s reading refers to one of the first clashes with this tribe. The text says that Moses ordered Joshua to attack them while he, together with Aaron and Hur, went up the mountain to implore God’s help (vv. 12-13). It happened that, while Moses had his arms raised in prayer, Joshua won, but when because of fatigue, he let them down, the Amalekites had the best of the fight (v. 11).

How to succeed in keeping Moses’ arms always raised in prayer? Aaron and Hur found the solution: they had Moses sit down on a rock and they, one at the right and the other at the left, sustained him. They remained so until evening, and Israel routed the Amalekites. This biblical passage does not mean to be an invitation to ask God for power to kill one’s enemies! The people in antiquity believed that the gods fought alongside the people who adored them. Today, instructed by Jesus, we know that this is an archaic and rough concept of God. The episode narrated in the reading was inserted in the Bible because it has a theological message. It teaches us that those who want to achieve goals beyond one’s strength must pray without ceasing.

Some results could be obtained only through prayer. We confront enemies that obstruct our life, take our breath away: ambition, hate, and unruly passion. If only we let our arms down for a moment, if we interrupt prayer, these enemies will immediately take the upper hand. What remains for us is to resign to the dramatic experience of defeat. The arms should be kept raised … until evening, until the end of life without getting tired.

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 3:14–4:2

Beloved: 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 sacredScriptures, which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 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.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingly power: proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching. —The Word of the Lord.

  What values are worth committing our lives for? What principles to teach in our children? Must they be educated to compete, to conquer, or to help the weakest? What value to give to money, family, children, health, one’s image, and success? The answers to these questions are many and diverse. What is the correct one?

The proposed solutions by people are uncertain and changeable, often conditioned more by fads than by solid reasons. Paul suggests to Timothy the sure point of reference: the Sacred Scriptures. To convince him, he recalls the tie that binds him to the faith. He reminds him how he was educated since childhood in “sincere faith of your grandmother Lois and of your mother Eunice” (2 Tim 1:5).

He continues to explain the value of the Sacred Scriptures. “It is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, refuting errors, for correcting and training in Christian faith. Through Scriptures, a man of God is made expert and thoroughly equipped for every good work” (vv. 14,16). Those who found this treasure cannot hide it orconsider it a good thing to enjoy solitude. One must communicate one’s discovery to one’s brothers/sisters.

Paul implores Timothy—and through him all the animators of the community—to take advantage of every occasion to preach the Gospel (2 Tim 4:1-2). The Apostle is worried that the disciples' faith is not adequately nourished with the unique and nutrient food: The Word of God, contained in the sacred books. In the same years, Peter, turning to the neophytes, employs another moving image. He compares this Word to the milk that the mother church offers to her children. He says, “like newborn children, seek eagerly for the pure milk of the Word that will help you grow and reach salvation” (1 Pt 2:2).

It is an invitation to all communities not to reduce the Christian life to devotions, repetition of rites, and religious ceremonies but to give importance to the study and meditation of the Sacred Scriptures.

Gospel: Luke 18:1-8

Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said, “There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, ‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’ For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, ‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.’” The Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” —The Gospel of the Lord.

 Prayer must not be a way to force God to do our will. Why are we invited to turn to him persistently? What is the meaning of prayer? To these questions, Jesus responds today with a parable (vv. 1-5) and with application to the community's life (vv. 6-8). The parable starts with the presentation of personages.

The first is the judge, whose duty should be protecting the weak and the defenseless instead of being godless and unsympathetic. (v. 2). He, in his monologue, accepts that the wicked reputation he made for himself has been totally justified: “I neither fear God nor care for about people” (v. 4). Jesus’ description of this man is quite realistic. One would think that it refers to some cases of blatant injustice Jesus has heard or witnessed about this judge.

The second personage is the widow. In Middle Eastern literature and the Bible, she symbolizes a defenseless person, exposed to abuse, a victim of exactions, who cannot appeal to anyone except to the Lord. Sirach is moved by a widow’s condition and threatens anyone who abuses her: “The Lord is judge and shows no partiality. He will not disadvantage the poor, he who hears the prayer of the oppressed. He does not disdain the plea of the orphan nor the complaint of the widow. When tears flow down her cheeks, is she not crying out against the ones who caused her to weep? Her sorrow obtains God’s favor, and her cry reaches the clouds”(Sir 35:12-16).

In the parable, a widow who suffered injustice is on the scene. Perhaps she was deceived in a transition of inheritance or was a victim of a scam. Perhaps someone exploited her work; indeed, she has been wronged and claims her rights, but no one listens to her. She has no money to pay a lawyer nor knows someone who could plead her cause, and there is no one to advise her. She has a single card in hand and plays it: she pesters the judge repeatedly, with stubbornness, to the extent of looking indiscreet (v. 3).

After having presented the two personages, the parable continues with the monologue of the judge. One day he decides to solve the case not because he realizes his misbehavior but is tired and annoyed by the woman's insistence. “He says: this widow is troublesome, she pesters me and becomes unbearable” (vv. 4-5).

The parable concludes here. The following verses (vv. 6-8) contain an actualization. We will comment on it later. First, we try to grasp the meaning and the message of the parable. Who is the unjust judge? The answer seems obvious and even embarrassing: it’s God! But it is not so. This personage, in reality, is secondary. He is introduced only to create an unsustainable situation that Jesus wants to draw attention to. The condition in which the disciples find themselves in this world that is still dominated by evil and profoundly marked by death.

At the time of Jesus, injustice was rampant in oppressive political, social, and religious systems. Today it is represented by abuses and fraudulence at the cost of the poorest, by inexplicable and absurd events and practices that disturb and contradict our longing for life. What do we do in these situations? Here is the message of the parable: pray. Jesus has told so—says the evangelist—to teach the belief that it is necessary to “pray always, without ceasing” (v. 1). Prayer is the most excellent means not to lose one’s head in the most difficult and dramatic moments when everything seems to conspire against the Kingdom of God and us.

How to be constantly praying? Prayer should not be identified with monotonous repetition of formulae that weaken both, the one who recites it and the one who listens. I believe—even God may be annoyed if they are not expressions of an authentic sentiment of the heart (cf. Am 5:23). Jesus calls the disciples' attention not to pray like the pagans who believe it to be heard for their much speaking (Mt 6:7).

True prayer, which must never be interrupted, maintains oneself in constant dialogue with the Lord. Dialogue with him makes us evaluate reality, events, and people with their criteria of judgment. We examine with him our thoughts, sentiments, reactions, and plans.

To pray always means not to make some decisions without first consulting him. If, even for a single moment, one would interrupt this rapport with God, if—to use the image of the First Reading—the arms are let down, immediately the enemies of life and freedom will take the upper hand. These enemies are called passions, uncontrolled impulses, and instinctive reactions. They create conditions for foolish choices. Prayer allows, for example, to control impatience in wishing to establish the Kingdom of God at all costs and by any means. It is prayer that blocks us from forcing consciences and teaches us to respect the freedom of each person.

The conclusion of the passage (vv. 6-8) is somewhat enigmatic. The last phrase: “but when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” seems to insinuate the doubt on the final success of Christ’s work. To understand it, it is necessary to verify what he is speaking about and who are listening to him. Then a correction to the translation must also be made. The Lord talks, and the Gospel of Luke indicates that it is the Risen One. He turns to the chosen ones, the persecuted Christians of Luke’s community. He wants to answer their faith dilemma.

We are in the 80s of the first century, when, in Asia Minor, a very violent persecution started. Domitian claims that all should adore him as a god. The pagan religious institutions, servile and flattering, adequately give in and support the maniacal eccentricity of the sovereign. The Christians do not. As the Book of Revelation says (Rev 13), they cannot bow before the ‘beast’ (the Domitian divo), and for this, they undergo harassment, discrimination, and persecutions.

Now it’s clear who the widow of the parable is: it is the church of Luke, the church whose Spouse is taken away; it is this community that awaits his coming, even though she may not know the day or the hour of his return and that each day, with insistence, she is pleading: “Come Lord Jesus” (Rev 22:20).

To this invocation, the Lord gives a consoling answer, with a rhetoric question, “And will not God give justice to his chosen ones who day and night cry to him” followed by a peremptory affirmation, “Yes, I tell you: He will bring justice to them soon; even if he makes them wait for long.” You may have noted that the question mark at the end of the sentence has been removed in my translation. This alteration makes the meaning of the text more coherent. A major temptation of Christians is discouragement and distrust in the face of a long wait for the Spouse, who delays and tolerates injustice.

The last sentence: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” does not refer to the end of the world but the saving arrival of Christ in this world. Before the inexplicable slowness of the judge, the widow could have resigned and despaired to the fate of not obtaining justice one day. The Lord alerts the community against this danger represented by discouragement and resignation of the thought that the Spouse is not coming anymore to render justice. He will surely come, but will he find his chosen ones ready to welcome him? To someone, his slowness could cause a loss of faith!