Sunday, October 17, 2010

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Lk 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?"


First of all, I want to say that my reflections are personal reflections:  I do not speak for the Catholic Church, only myself.  My hope is that these reflections will be of some help to those who choose to read.

There are two things that occurred to me as I read today's Gospel:  1)  That the widow was aware that there was an injustice committed against her; 2) That she did not resort to violent means to obtain a just decision from the judge.

From the first point, I believe that the people who are most attuned to injustice are the weak and unfortunate.  They are more aware of the unfairness of life, when it affects them or affects others, because their experience of being disadvantaged is first-hand.  Because of this, the weak and disadvantaged are much more reliant upon God's help, since the normal means for dealing with life's inequities are not so easily available to them.  As such, the widow uses God's grace to combat the injustice that has been dealt her:  She persists in her pursuit of justice.

This is precisely what God does for us, because in God's eyes we are all weak and disadvantaged children.   None of us has attained a state of perfection that automatically guarantees us a place in heaven.  As a result, God persistently calls out to us, loves us, cherishes us, embraces us in order to help us combat the injustice in our lives, whether we are aware of that injustice or not.  He is our Advocate, our Defender, our Protector, and our job is to open our eyes to the injustice in our lives and allow God's grace to help us persistently combat that injustice.

As to the second point--that the widow did not resort to violence--I believe it is interesting to note that the evil judge was conscious that there possibly could be violence involved if he did not decide in the widow's favor.  Perhaps the injustice against the widow involved a lot of money, and she could have hired a "hit-man" to threaten the judge if he did not rule in her favor.  But, the widow did not resort to violence:  She simply kept coming back to the dishonest judge time and time again, with the same petition:  that he recognize the injustice done to her and rule in her favor.

The same thing is true of God:  He does not resort to violence in dealing with us, in helping us to see the injustice in our lives.  No, God simply comes to us time and time again, with the same request:  Recognize the injustice in your life and allow me to help you correct it.  How many times will God have to come to us?  My sense is that it will be for the rest of our lives.  However, if listen to God and recognize the injustice in our lives, and if we let Him help us to correct it, we will be on our way to receiving a just judgment from the Eternal Judge, whose only goal is to lovingly call and cherish His children, inspire of the injustice in our lives.

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