SATURDAY 32nd Week, Ordinary Time GOSPEL: Luke 18:1-8 “Then he told them 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? REFLECTION How the way justice is being rendered by the court juries to the innocent people nowadays? Seldom we can hear or find rich, influential and corrupt personalities in our society being put to jail despite all the evidence being presented. As long as you have money to pay a lawyer who has caliber to win the case, there’s no problem to win the case. Or if not, the case would end up to either being delayed as a strategy or being dismissed or forgotten forever. The case is completely reverse when the accused is an ordinary person and poor creature. The poor creature is immediately being arrested (sometimes even without warrant of arrest), harassed or even tortured and ridiculed before being put into prison. Just by looking at how the way they are treated by the authority (including ourselves), surely we can see the big difference and how unjust is our treatment with the poor and helpless people. Often times, if not always, our justice system is bias, especially with the poor. We heard in the gospel the story of the unjust judge, who recognized no one, not even God, the just Judge, being disturbed by a certain woman, a widow. The latter was so persistent in her request so much so that the unjust judge and due to the disturbance brought to him or her (?) by the widow, s/he eventually granted the request. The same with our attitude in praying. In today’s gospel, St Luke reminds all of us about how to pray constantly and persistently to God, our Father, like a widow who never ceases pleading to the unjust judge asking for justice against her adversary. But let us be reminded again and again that prayer or praying to the Lord is not primarily asking sometimes from the Lord, rather, prayer is a relationship, a constant and active one. PRAYER IS MORE THAN AN APPEAL OR A REQUEST, PRAYER IS A LOVING AND INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN US AND GOD. We pray precisely because would like to communicate and talk with God, in fact, it is God who first calling to us and so we answer or respond to his call through and in prayer. It is likened to the relationship between a little child communicating or talking with his/her father or mother. Thats why prayer is not just just. In it even stunning in Filipino language: Hwag mo/natin nila lang ang panalangin/dasal! Contrary to what we know or before it becomes a commodity or a means to ask for something, prayer is a relationship, a father and son/daughter loving and intimate relationship. If that’s our attitude, then it doesn’t matter whether or not and how long we have to wait in order for God to grant our individual prayer or request knowing that prayer is primarily nothing more but our constant relationship with him. And when we say “relationship,” it’s not just a casual or ordinary conversation like the usual manner they way we relate with our parents or loved ones or with our friends perhaps. Our relationship with God through prayer must go beyond any human relationship. For one reason or another, from time to time we would feel bad or get angry with our parents, loved ones and friends or vice-versa. And so our relationship with them is interrupted or totally cut off. But that’s not the case with our God. For some times and for whatever reason we might feel angry with God so much so that we reject or ignore him often times, but unlike our parents or loved ones or friends, God will never ever get angry with each one of us or reject or ignore us; for all we know that he is a loving, forgiving, caring, compassionate and understanding God, who is always there ever present and ever ready to rescue us no matter what. All we need to do is to have faith in God through our Lord Jesus in the Holy Spirit and constantly communicate to him, to pray constantly without ceasing every day. That’s a real and authentic kind of prayer.
Posted on: Sat, 16 Nov 2013 13:40:11 +0000
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