Luke18:1-8
1Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ 4For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” 6And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
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Christ is the model of praying always and not losing heart.
His life was (and is) a continuous day and night cry, a consciousness of and witness to the injustice and suffering everywhere present in humanity. And not just in humanity, but in all creation, which, St Paul states, groans like a woman in childbirth–so great is the longing of all beings for the ultimate revelation of divine justice, consolation, peace, and deep communion. The four chapters of the great gospel also are such a form of prayer, bearing witness to the sins of the world and the hope of God. For the pattern of the way of the Christ gives voice to the passion of God’s great dream of shalom and becomes a sign of it.
Since this is a lot to understand, Luke writes in a very pointed manner to his fledgling church and to us: “And the Lord (Jesus!) said: “Listen to what the unjust judge says”—the judge who finally announces he will grant the widow her justice. I wonder how this resonated in the ears and the heart of Luke’s community, as they experienced the “great divorce” of Judaism and the fledgling Christian movement. Ostracized, shunned, and persecuted, they may have seen themselves as very much in the same fix as the basically powerless widow. And the ever present temptation surely must have to been to give into the ways things were and give up on God.
Listen to what the judge says and remember the widow! She “won her case”, finally, yet what power did the widow have? Most likely none but the power of persistence, the deep courage of never giving up until justice is done.
What does this mean for us? In the post-modern age, when Christianity and (real) faith are largely passe, we may also experience now what many others have endured: marginalization and a feeling of powerlessness. Longing for the past triumphalism of Christendom is neither prayer nor faith, but rather seeking to have power that is not from God.
Therefore, the sign of faith on earth are the “chosen ones”, who in their weakness are finally attentive to the primary call: unceasing prayer for people in every circumstance, friends and enemies alike, and for all creation. Such prayer gives voice to the cry of the Christ, day and night, by both words and actions. This difficult enterprise of unceasing prayer brings into ever growing consciousness the sins of the world and the hope of God.
Thus we affirm the inescapable mission of those who would follow The Way: pray always and never lose heart. That is the sign of faith on earth
