Twenty-Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time—Year C

Lectio

   Luke 18:1–8

Meditatio

“… pray always without becoming weary.”

   How can a person “pray always”? Don’t we need to go about our daily lives, fulfilling our obligations, using our mind to its full potential? If we are occupied, how can we “pray always”? Jesus is not suggesting that we spend all our time in prayer. Instead, he is encouraging us to pray, to keep on going, and to nurture our relationship with him even when we feel weary. We don’t want to give up on God, because he never gives up on us and pursues us as a smitten lover would. We don’t want to let shame lead us away from God, because he loves us unconditionally. We don’t want to turn away from God, because he doesn’t turn his back on us and is always gently guiding our eyes toward him.

   When we find prayer to be easy, we imagine never giving it up. But when we come to rocky and tumultuous times of prayer, it is difficult to sustain conversation with God. Yet the saints and mystics unanimously urge us never to lose heart. We need to persevere even when we feel nothing, when we are angry at God, when we are bored, and when our interests pull us in an entirely different direction. Through it all, we must not grow weary but remain faithful to prayer, convinced of God’s unfailing love and fidelity. Prayer can take many forms, whether it is the prayer of the Church (liturgical prayer) or private devotion. Our prayer may be long, or it may consist of brief conversations with the Lord. We can raise our hearts to praise God for a grace received, for the beauty of creation, or to ask for favors. We can pray for ourselves, and we can bring to God the needs of others. Above all, we may always ask God to give us the gift of prayer—the gift of enjoying a familiar, loving, and grateful relationship with him.

Oratio

   Lord God, may you be praised for the beauty of dawn and sunset. Lord God, help those people who are suffering due to natural disasters. Lord God, grant that my family may be safe. Lord God, I love you and praise you! Amen.

Contemplatio

   “Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5).

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ORDINARY GRACE Weeks 18–34: Daily Gospel Reflections (By the Daughters of St. Paul)

Twenty-ninth Sunday

First reading: Perseverance in Prayer (Exodus 17:8–13)

This battle scene seems to us nowadays a bit of an odd passage to choose to reinforce the gospel lesson of perseverance in prayer. Can we still pray for the slaughter of our enemies? An important value of these bloodthirsty passages of the Old Testament is to remind us that revelation is gradual: we cannot take in everything at once. Look how long it took us to realize that the logical consequence of Paul’s little letter to Philemon is the total abolition of slavery! Paul didn’t realize it, and neither did most Christians for 1700 years. Future generations may think our morality primitive, too, as we or our successors come to understand Christianity ever more fully. However, prayer can be exciting and uplifting, but it can also be boring and exhausting, with just that sinking feeling of exhaustion: ‘I can’t hold my hands up any longer.’ That is when we need really get on and hang on in there, expressing that God is not just one Mr Fixit among many possibles, but is our only hope and dependence. Cupboard love alone will not do, neither will a last-minute turn to someone about whose existence we had practically forgotten.

Question: When is it important to turn to prayer?

Second reading: The Uses of Scripture (2 Timothy 3:14–4:2)

The inspired writer seems to be devoting much of his space to the use of scripture in preaching and controversy, but most of all the scriptures ‘instruct you for salvation’. We have to receive the message, and take it to our own hearts before we can pass it on to others. This is by seeing the variety of ways in which God cares for us, his ever present forgiveness in all our idiotic mistrust and shying away, our stubborn preference for our own search for happiness. Only by immersing ourselves regularly in the scriptures and growing to love these varied glimpses of God can we come to draw out their richness and sweetness. And there are plenty of difficulties to be overcome: the strangeness of language and ancient ways of thought, the barbaric primitiveness of the Chosen People of God, the boring instructions on sacrifice and purity. Don’t rush it or gobble it up. Go your own pace, and remember that it began as God’s Word to Abraham, Moses, David or whoever, or Jesus helping his contemporaries to understand about the Kingdom, or Paul responding to the queries of his half-instructed converts. But now it is God’s Word to you.

Question: What is your favourite passage of scripture?

Gospel: The Answer to Prayer (Luke 18:1–8)

We often think of prayer as mere asking, and this parable encourages us to pester God as the wronged widow pestered the Unjust Judge. But that is only one aspect of Luke’s teaching on prayer. He also shows us what our attitude in prayer should be, by the parable immediately following in the gospel, the Pharisee and the Tax Collector: the tax collector wins approval because he just stands there, admitting his sins. Most instructive, however, is Luke’s teaching on Jesus at prayer: he reminds us that Jesus is always quietly at prayer to his Father. He needs to slip away to spend the night in prayer. Especially he prays at the most important moments of his life, at his baptism, when he chooses his team, before he teaches them to pray, at the approach of his Passion, finally forgiving and comforting others at his death. Paul tells us we should pray continually. The prayer of asking must be built on a relationship of love and dependence, just as the request of child to parents is built on that loving relationship. It does not matter if the child is naughty, as long as the relationship is one of love; so we do not need to be perfect to make our requests to our Father.

Question: When and how do you find it best to pray?

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The Sunday Word: A Commentary on the Sunday Readings (Wansbrough, Henry)

Saturday of the Twenty-Eighth Week of Ordinary Time

Lectio

   Luke 12:8–12

Meditatio

“For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.”

As we near the end of the liturgical year, the readings of the liturgy become more serious, even foreboding. Most of us will probably never be brought before rulers or authorities in the way the Gospel describes. But if we think about it, our Christian convictions are on trial every day of our lives. Small personal struggles, known only to ourselves, test our love and keep us praying for the promised grace and strength of the Holy Spirit.

   Besides that, we are asked to take part in the battles of our own day, to proclaim the truth of the Gospel even in the face of what society considers “politically correct.” Judeo-Christian values are constantly challenged; unjust laws exist in our own nation. We must allow ourselves to be the voice of the living word. Sometimes we may be called to actually use our physical voice, but even if our words are ignored, our example is a silent word. As the proverb says, “Actions speak louder than words.”

   Crucial life and death struggles are going on all over the globe. They may take place far away, but they are still very real. The Church still has martyrs who are undergoing persecution in many countries. The odds seem stacked against us, but we must heed the living word in today’s Gospel. Every age has its own struggles, but God always defends us if we let the Holy Spirit lead us. We look beyond the visible scene with the eyes of faith, for we know that the war has already been won on Calvary. Confidence in our Lord’s love is the key to true wisdom. The victory will always be Jesus Christ’s.

Oratio

   O Lord, be my light in the darkness of this world. Guide my steps with your word and fill my mind with your truth. Enlarge my heart with your love and grant me the courage to witness to you in every situation. Use me to bring your love to others. I accept that I may not always understand how you are using me, but I trust that one day, in this life or the next, you will reveal it to me. I only know that by simply living my daily life according to your word, you will use me. Keep my eyes fixed on you. Increase my faith. From eternity to eternity, you are God.

Contemplatio

   I am yours, Lord. May my life speak of you.

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ORDINARY GRACE Weeks 18–34: Daily Gospel Reflections (By the Daughters of St. Paul)

Friday of the Twenty-Eighth Week of Ordinary Time

Lectio

   Luke 12:1–7

Meditatio

“… whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light.…”

   So often in the Gospels, Jesus points out the hypocrisy of some of the religious leaders. In fact, sometimes we can become so used to it that we become deaf to the concern Jesus has for us. Let’s take the word “hypocrisy” and translate it into a term often used today: “transparency.” Companies and parishes must have financial transparency. Leaders have to be transparent and put into full view their motivations and the information that has led to their decisions. We want our elected officials to be transparent. Transparency as honesty is valued as a virtue in children, and also in adults.

   Those who demand the most transparency in others are often the least transparent about their own activities and decisions. Their demand for transparency may just be a politically correct term for expressing their feelings of being marginalized and not included. Or perhaps they are rebellious against authority. Such persons act hypocritically, demanding transparency of others but refusing to be honest themselves.

   Yet other people are honest and transparent. How do we reverence transparency in others when they make themselves vulnerable by revealing motivations, desires, weaknesses, dreams, or decisions? Their transparency must be respected by those who are entrusted with valuable and sensitive information. This takes maturity, which sometimes others lack. Then the person being open and honest may be betrayed and hurt because others cannot be transparent themselves. In situations like this, some of Jesus’ sayings can bring comfort to us: “There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed … do not be afraid of those who kill the body.… Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.”

Oratio

   Jesus, so many misunderstandings have made my life complex. But you know the truth. You know I’ve tried. You know my weaknesses, and you are here in the mess. You are making me holy in the pain of betrayal. I hear you repeat over and over, “Do not be afraid.” I open my heart completely to your gaze, and hide nothing from you. Amen.

Contemplatio

   Light in the darkness, shine in my soul.

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ORDINARY GRACE Weeks 18–34: Daily Gospel Reflections (By the Daughters of St. Paul)

Thursday of the Twenty-Eighth Week of Ordinary Time

Lectio

   Luke 11:47–54

Meditatio

“… the key of knowledge.…”

   Today’s Gospel focuses on the woes that Jesus pronounces against the scribes and Pharisees. In reading this text, we realize that he is acting in the biblical tradition of prophetic denunciation of evil. Jesus’ intent is not to condemn all the people of Israel, not even all the Pharisees. His intent is to highlight an error in order to draw people away from it. He’s acting like a doctor who has to administer some painful remedy to cure the patient.

   Jesus speaks of how the prophets were killed when they announced God’s word. He then says, “You have taken away the key of knowledge.” In this context, knowledge seems to refer to access to the kingdom of God. “You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter.” In the Bible, the symbol of keys indicates authority. Jesus is saying that the religious leaders blocked people from entering the kingdom instead of helping them to get in. It’s like a teacher who, instead of helping students prepare to pass an important exam, deliberately tries to make them fail.

   The prophets were rejected and killed by people who didn’t want to hear their sometimes harsh messages. The key of knowledge is humility of heart, the ability to accept a truthful message even when it’s hard to hear. Resistance to truth, as well as its acceptance, come more from our heart than our mind. That is why God sent John the Baptist to prepare the way for Christ. Unlike the religious professionals, John came on the scene with no credentials except the intensity of his love. He pointed to Jesus, not himself, saying, “He must increase; I must decrease” (Jn 3:30). John, the voice in the wilderness, preached a baptism of repentance to prepare people to accept Jesus. John gave the key of knowledge to those who would accept it. Today, the world is filled with many conflicting voices. But the voice of Jesus teaching through the Church is loud and clear. Which voice am I going to listen to?

Oratio

   Jesus, you give us the key of knowledge, the key to entering the kingdom of heaven. Help me to have true humility of heart, so that I may listen attentively to your teaching and accept it fully.

Contemplatio

   Lord, I want to listen to your voice.

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ORDINARY GRACE Weeks 18–34: Daily Gospel Reflections (By the Daughters of St. Paul)