Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, C October 20, 2019
Fr. Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
If you’ve ever tried to pray regularly, you know that prayer is a battle. A battle against time, against distractions, against your own selfishness. Sure, most of us have had at least one point in our life where we enjoyed praying, but all of us have experienced a dryness, a boredom, and a downright reluctance to pray. Perhaps this is why almost 75% of Catholics don’t come to Mass every week and that many who do come tend to show up late and leave early… as if they can barely stand it. Some will say they don’t enjoy the Mass, which proves my point. Prayer, real prayer is not always easy, it’s usually not fun. It is a battle.
Don’t get me wrong, personal prayer, charismatic prayer, spontaneous prayer, quiet reflective prayer – all these are good and important forms of prayer, but no prayer is more powerful than the Mass. But this is not a homily about going to Mass because that would be preaching to the choir. No, this is about the battle of prayer.
That’s what’s going on in this weird scene from the Exodus where Moses has to keep his arms up so the Israelites can win the battle against Amalek. It really happened, but it is also an allegory for Christian prayer. Moses holding his hands up is a physical prayer, much like what I do during Mass. And as long as he keeps praying, the Israelites are winning the battle. When he slacks off, they start to lose. It’s hard to keep your hands up in the air for hours and hours. It’s also hard to keep praying for days, months, and years. Not random prayer when you feel like it, I mean dedicated, regular, deliberate prayer not because you feel like it but because it’s the right thing to do.
The need for constant prayer is a special challenge to pastors. If they don’t pray, their people suffer. Moses is safe on the mountain, but his people are down in the battle potentially getting killed if he doesn’t pray. It’s the same with priests – if we don’t pray, we risk losing souls no matter how organized, educated, or well-liked we might be.
But you’re not getting off easy! This also applies to parents. All the education and training in the world doesn’t mean much if you don’t pray – and pray hard! – for your children. Especially you fathers, pay attention, God calls himself a Father for a reason. Only men become priests for a reason. Every study ever done shows that the faith of the children is most influenced by their father. If the father prays and practices, the children are almost twice as likely to pray and practice than if it’s just the mother. By His own mysterious design, God has always expected men to be leaders in the faith. Don’t forget that for Christians, leadership means service and sacrifice.
And don’t think this means men are better than women! Men might have twice the effect on their children, but women tend to pray 5 times as hard. Jesus uses the example of a woman in this parable for a reason. Her persistence paid off and the judge did what she wanted. She convinced the judge all by herself, but Moses needed two people to even keep him praying. Many souls are in heaven primarily because the women in their life prayed so hard! Women like Mary, our Mother, St. Monica, St. Augustine’s mother. I know I personally owe so much to the prayers and example of my grandmother! So, man or woman, you must pray for those in your care! There is a battle raging for their souls and your prayers very well could be a deciding factor.
Still, if you do pray like you’re supposed to, you will very quickly come to the real problem. Not only is it hard to keep praying, but it will seem like some prayers are never answered. Why fight so hard to pray if I never see the results? That’s why Jesus gives us this parable. You haven’t seen the results yet, but if you don’t give up, you will see them. Look again at what this widow does. She basically nags the judge until he gives in. The judge is even afraid the woman might hit him! Jesus is literally telling you to annoy God with your prayers and even to be kind of forceful. If you try to pray every day, you will quickly realize that a little force and violence are needed – you’ll find you have to force yourself to keep praying. Please do!
History reveals a great battle between good and evil. In every generation, our lives and prayers contribute to that great battle – often to both sides at the same time. And yet, we might fall into one of two extremes. It can be tempting to think that our efforts don’t matter, that we can’t make a difference and shouldn’t bother. At the opposite extreme, we might arrogantly think that the final victory depends entirely on us. But both of those ideas are too simple.
Look back at the battle with Moses; It’s Joshua doing the actual fighting. In the Greek, that’s the same name as Jesus. Ultimately, it’s Jesus fighting the battle. Even Moses holding his hands up is a symbol of Jesus’ arms held up on the Cross. And in this battle of prayer, Jesus dies, but he rises from the dead. His ultimate sacrifice and prayer end in victory. Your prayer is a way of participating in the victory that Jesus already won. Many of your prayers will never be answered in this life, but only at the end of time when Jesus returns to judge the world, to save his people, to punish sin, and to fix what is broken. That is our hope.
And yet Jesus ends his parable with such a dark question: “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” You see, your prayers don’t change who wins or loses. Jesus wins. Period. The only thing your prayers can change is which side you’ll be on when he does. It’s not a simple, single decision. It’s a matter of faith, of perseverance. If you pray and keep praying, your faith will survive and you will be on His side. If you don’t pray, if you just assume you’re on the right side… your faith will not survive and you may be on the wrong side of judgement. If you don’t keep praying, then you can’t expect Jesus to answer your prayer when he returns.
So pray. Pray for yourself, pray for your family, your friends, employees, co-workers, and for the evangelization of Jeanerette. Pray for your pastor and all priests. If you need help, seek out others who pray, people who can teach you more about prayer. Keep striving. Pray like your life depends on it because, well, it does.