DAILY MEDITATION: “Pray always without becoming weary”

Liturgical day: Saturday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel text (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?”

“Pray always without becoming weary”

Fr. Joan FARRÉS i Llarisó
(Rubí, Barcelona, Spain)

Today, when the last days of the liturgical year are getting near, Jesus exhorts us to pray, to open ourselves to God. We may think as the family parents who —every day!— are expecting to receive from their sons some words showing their loving affection.

God, who is our Father, also expects these words. Jesus says it quite often in the Gospel and we know that to speak with God is to pray. Our prayer is the voice of faith of our belief in Him, also of our confidence, and it would be great if it would always be the manifestation of our love.

For our prayer to be trustful and persevering, St. Luke says that “Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary” (Lk 18, 1). We know we can pray by praising our Lord, by thanking Him, or by acknowledging our human weakness —the sin—, and imploring God's mercy, but most of the time, we shall be demanding some grace or favor. And, even if we do not immediately get what we are asking for, only the very fact of being able to address ourselves to God, to explain to this Someone our sorrow or our worries, will already mean we have achieved something. And, surely —even if not immediately, but eventually— we shall get a reply, because “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?” (Lk 18, 7).

With regard to this evangelic parable, Saint John Climacus says “that judge who feared not God, finally yields to the widow's insistence so that she stops coming and wearing him out. God will do justice to the soul, his widow because of sin, in front of the body, his first enemy, and in front of all the devils, his invisible adversaries. The Divine Trader will certainly know how to properly trade in our good wares, to place his great goods at our disposal with amorous solicitude, and to promptly hear our prayers.”

Perseverance in prayer, confidence in God. Tertullian said “Prayer is the one thing that can conquer God.”

Source: evangeli.net