29th Sunday Ordinary Time
Our readings this Sunday call us to be persistence in prayer. In the first readings, Moses raises his arms in prayer of the army of Israel so that they can overcome their adversary Amalek and his armies. How often does our own prayer feel like a struggle between ourselves and God? Do we ever feel the weight of doubt that God is listening to us? Are we afraid God will say “no” to us in our requests? At times like that, do we need a Moses-like figure to hold us up in prayer to even pray for us when we cannot do it for ourselves. In the second reading this weekend we hear Paul speak to us in very definitive terms about praying- “Remain faithful to what you have learned and from infancy heard from Sacred Scripture.” This reading is a continuation of what we have been reading over the last couple of weeks. Over these weeks, Paul, who is in prison and in chains and has been abandoned by his friends, and yet speaks lovingly to his disciple Timothy, as a parent would to a child, concerning the importance of being persistent in prayer. This call to pray always does not always mean getting down on our knees or going to church to pray. But this persistence that he is speaking of is about the development of a prayerful attitude. A prayerful attitude that enables us to remember our dependence on God, and God's commitment to always care for all his creation. Fletcher Croom in an article for the Guidepost magazine relates the following story about how nature itself can teach us about being persistent in our praise of God. He writes: “After my wife complained for the umpteenth time about nearly tripping on the patio because of a vine sticking out of one of the bricks, I went to explore what could be done. Carefully I lifted out one of the patio bricks and found a long trailing yellow stemmed vine stretched out on the ground. Lifting another brick, I discovered that the plant had started life under that second brick and had crept under the two bricks to a minute opening and then used all its strength, however puny, to force itself into the light of day. Unable to destroy something that had exerted such strength and ingenuity, I carefully replaced one brick and then left a brick-size hole in our patio to see what would become of this yellow vine. I warned the family to watch out for the plant. Our sturdy little fighter-plant thus became an object of great interest to our entire family. One day our youngest burst into the breakfast room shouting, “It’s bloomed!” We rushed to the patio to see a couple of cheery yellow flowers waving wildly in the sun. Marveling at it, I thought, “In all of God’s creation, if one tiny living thing can call upon untold and unknown strengths to make itself live, how much more can we with conscious thought and effort, call upon that same Source of strength?” Now whenever our family members have something particularly difficult to do or find ourselves in a situation that seems impossible to work out, we smile and say, “Remember our plant?” Then we try to be as strong, persistent, and resourceful as it taught us to be. “1. At times in our own lives, we can become overwhelmed by problems, difficulties, and feel that God may not even hear our prayer for help. But God is always listening for us and putting into our path examples of his lasting love for us and his faithfulness to our ultimate welfare. Sometimes we may feel God has left us abandoned, but where would God go, “for his fullness fill the universe.” (Ephesians 1:23) In the gospel Jesus tells us to pray always. Then, he related the parable of the widow who with the persistence of weeds, demands that the judge give her justice in her claim. The judge, Jesus explains fears neither God nor man. But this woman is going to be his total undoing if he will not rule in her favor. His final decision is given not out of a sense of justice but just to get rid of the woman to protect himself. If we were persistent in our prayer life, what do you think would be the outcome for us and for those for whom we pray? Persistence in prayer is highlighted in three other stories in the gospels: The Woman with The Issue of Blood, which was so important it appears in Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s gospels. Then we have the story of the blind beggar, Bartimaeus, and finally the story of the Canaanite Woman who comes to Jesus to heal her daughter. Bartimaeus sits hoping and waiting for alms and then hears Jesus is passing. Now, finally, the one he has heard of, the one he hoped would pass him one day, is finally near him. He jumps up, screaming, “Jesus, Son David, have mercy on me.” The crowd tries to silence his cries, but he cries all the louder. Finally, Jesus calls for him to come closer. And then the miracle Bartimaeus has waited for all his life, is his. By not listening to crowd to be quiet, to stay in his place, he is healed by God’s son. How often are we like Bartimaeus calling out in the darkness waiting for God to hear us and not noticing that God is right beside us all the time. How often do people dissuade us from praying by saying it is useless to hope. And then we have the story of the Canaanite woman, a mother, a foreigner, a non-Jew. She comes to Jesus begging him to heal her daughter of an unclean spirit. At first the disciples want her to be silenced, driven away, after all why should she get a miracle. Miracles are only for believers, right? Even Jesus says to her it is not right to throw the children's food to the dogs. But she is not to be put off. She like the woman in the gospel this weekend seeks justice and healing for her daughter, and she believes, even though she is a pagan, that Jesus is the one who has the power to grant her wish. So, it does not matter how many people humiliate her and put her down, she is going to stand her ground. Because of her faith in Jesus and her persistence in not accepting a “no”, she is granted the miracle that she has so desperately sought and believed is hers for the asking. Jesus praises her faith and grants her requests because of it. And finally, we have the gospel account of the woman with constant bleeding. The gospel writers tell us she has been treated by doctors for over 12 years, and no one can help her. We know nothing more about her whether she is a woman of influence or woman of poverty. What we do know about her is that she is a woman of faith in Jesus. Where did she learn about Jesus, we do not know perhaps she has seen the healings. In her mind and in her heart, she believes that if she can touch him, she will be healed. Maybe she thinks he is a magician and if she touches him the magic will transfer to her, and she will be healed. But Jesus says to her after she is healed, it is her faith in who he is and what he cares about that has healed her. This last story asks us also to think about what we believe about our Lord's capacity to heal us. Perhaps we too like the woman have suffered for years from something. Can we name what that is? Perhaps it is a medical problem, perhaps it is an emotional problem, perhaps it is a faith problem. This gospel story asks us are we ready to reach out to Jesus to see what will happen. 2. Sometimes when we have come to God to ask for a favor for ourselves or someone we love, and it was not granted, we may have felt that God has said “no” to us. The “no” may not be because God is not listening to us or that God does not care about our needs, or we are not good enough for God to grant our request. Sometimes, I believe, that God’s seeming “no” is because God has a different plan, a different way that things will be resolved for us or for someone we love. In such times persistence in prayer, and patience and reliance on God's care for and about us is what may be needed to help us understand how God is moving on our behalf. Prayer is not about changing God’s mind, as much as it us is about changing our understanding of how God is working on our behalf. And for that reason, prayer needs to be a persistent attitude, a persistent action on our part. In Greek mythology there is a legend in which Zeus, the righteous ruler of the world, presents his subjects with a big vase filled with everything they would need to be whole and happy persons. The people are overjoyed by this great gift. They begin to dance with so much exuberance that the vase falls to the ground, and its lid pops off. And before the lid can be put back in place, all the life-giving gifts escaped, except one. The people cringe before the all-powerful Zeus. “Well,” he asks, “what is left?” Peeking inside the vase, one of the subjects, reports, “Only hope remains.” To which Zeus replies, “It is enough!” 3. And so even in ancient pagan Greece it was learned that where there is hope there is enough to carry us through anything. This year is a year of Hope. It is the year to reflect, to take time to pray, and time to be patient with God and to try and understand that when we are in union with God, when we reach out to God there is always, always, Hope!
1. 1. SundaySermons.com
2. 2.. 3 Biblical
Examples of Persistence to Learn From, Moses
Pierre-Paul 10 Comments, https/thewisebeliever, 11-12-2021.
3. 3. Sundaysermons.com
