Twenty-ninth Sunday of the Year, C – October 16, 2016.
Readings: Ex 17:8-13; Responsorial Psalm Ps 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8; 2 Tm 3:14-4:2; Gospel Lk 18:1-8.
Theme: Perseverance in Prayer & the Need to Never Grow Weary
Dearly beloved in Christ, our readings this Sunday challenges us on the need for perseverance and synergy in prayer as necessary ingredients of faith. Our liturgy focuses on perseverance as a recipe for petitioning heaven for our needs and the needs of the world. In the first reading (Ex 17:8-13), we are told that as long as Aaron and Hur held Moses' hands up, God granted victory to his people.
What does this mean for contemporary Christians? Well, friends in Christ, it is time we drew lessons from the intercessory role of pastors of souls in intervening for the flock especially at a time of crisis.
Often times, we take our Church leaders, who are supposed to legislate on our behalf before God, for granted. Instead of seeing their vocation for what it is, their role and influence is reduced in the eyes of the laity. As a people, we seriously need to see the Moses motif in our Church leaders and pray for them so as to be the ministers of God they are called to be.
If Moses’ typology is anything to go by, we could understand Aaron and Hur as the laity who are supposed to be collaborators in the evangelising mission of the Church. As co-heirs of God's kingdom, members of the laity must not allow the hand of Moses to grow weary. That means that as partners in progress, the lay faithful are called to a shared-responsibility and service.
Pastors of souls must never see the lay faithful as rivals or "junior folks." On the contrary, the first reading prepares a template for what the Vatican Council II calls collaborative ministry which seeks to form a synergy between the clergy and the laity.
In the second reading (2 Tm 3:14-4:2), we are also called to be faithful stewards of God as we offer our prayerful sentiments to him: "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 sacred Scriptures, which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" (2 Tm 3:14-4:2).
This message re-echoes the theme of perseverance in prayer. Little wonder it says: "Be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching."
Our first reading prepares us for the message of the gospel wherein the parable of the wicked Judge and the distressed widow point to perseverance in prayer as a recipe for all Christians. While we cannot juxtapose the Judge's readiness to help the widow with God’s divine assistance, suffice it to say that our God is able to do infinitely much more than we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20 ).
This again captures our homiletic theme namely: “Perseverance in Prayer and the Need to Never Grow Weary.” As a people of faith, we must realise that just as there a factors which stand against perseverance in prayer, many factors point to how the menace can be fought.
Factors Militating against Perseverance in Prayer
1. Physical distraction: More often than not, most of us are physically distracted during prayers and this does not augur well for our spirituality. It is common place to find us allowing the things around us to take the better part of our prayer time. Our physical environment too sometimes causes distraction. The excessive use of the internet, computer, cell phones, television and radio “as an alternative gospel” as Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama would say, are sources of distraction during prayer. Often times, these do not help us in articulating our sentiments before God.
2. Mental or Psychological distraction: When our minds wonder about aimlessly or they are preoccupied with thoughts other than our prayer-points, it means we are not connected with the divine. Your body may be in the Church and your mouth in motion but you may not be mentally or psychologically present there. Such wondering in thought militates against qualitative prayer.
3. Material distraction: Chances are that you are praying and in the middle of that spiritual exercise, you begin to think of a business deal, a work-place proposal, an upcoming interview or even other mundane interests. The tempter often uses these unnecessary infractions to distract us from concentrating in our communion with God.
4. Syncretic distraction: There are occasions where some Christians who are in the middle of a fasting exercise or a novena prayer will halt such exercises and resort to seeking solutions elsewhere. These so called solutions from unchristian sources amount to syncretism – a sure distraction to authentic reliance on the one, true God, the source and summit of our lives.
How to fight distraction in Prayer
1. Adequate Preparation: The people of Israel prepared adequately to face the people of Amalek as Moses, Joshua, Aaron and Hur organised themselves to win the war. In the same light, Christian must prepare adequately for both personal and communal prayer by eliminating unnecessary distractions like putting aside cell phones or switching the television off just to mention a few.
2. Custody of the Eyes: As an emerging theology in the Church, custody of the eyes demands that we fix our gaze on God and discipline our eyes during prayers. If closing the eyes will help us concentrate in prayer more, it is not out of place.
3. Requisite Alertness: It is absolutely important to be physically and mentally alert in our communication with God. It is crucial that one maintains a certain decorum to make for a smooth transition of sentiments between the created and the creator.
4. Relaying on the Holy Spirit: St. Paul insists that the Holy Spirit helps us to pray when we are unable to. This truism is a wakeup call for Christians to rely less and less on their vocabulary and energies and more and more on God’s inspiration as well as the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
5. Being a Sacramental Person: There is no gainsaying the fact that sacraments help us to live our lives in communion with God. As our leeway to both divine and sacramental grace, the daily reception of the sacraments helps us to articulate our prayer-points to God.
Our liturgy mandates us to not grow weary in seeking, asking and knocking (Matthew 7:7). Since God does not tire with us, we must never be afraid of asking. We must be careful not to give God a condition namely that if our prayers are not answered, we would not be his followers.
When things are tough, let us always remember that the teacher is often absent when the student is taking examinations. Always remember, your perseverance will win you your life (Luke 21:19). G[truncated by WhatsApp]
[07:15, 10/14/2016] Fr Justine: God bless your new week!
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