29th Sunday Ordinary Time Cycle C

10/14/2013

October 20, 2013

Perhaps the readings for this Sunday ask us to take a look at ourselves and see how persistent we are.

It is so easy in our society today to want everything to happen now.

We don't want to wait for anything including, at times, waiting for God. We want instant dinners, instant communication with our friends, instant contact with our bank accounts, instant entertainment, Etc.

We are a society who does not want to wait and does not have any sense of being persistent.

All of us can give up very easily when things don't happen right away.

Once again we hear a part of St. Paul's letter to Timothy encouraging him to make God present for others.
The same is also true for us; our baptism has called us to do that also.

Paul, with all of his struggles, encourages Timothy, with all of his struggles and difficulties as a very young bishop in a place where Christians are persecuted and rejected and are a minority, to be persistent, even when things are difficult and seem hopeless, which at times, must have been the case for St. Timothy.

When we look at scripture, we can see how God has been persistent in his love and mercy for the human race. He has never given up on us.

He has created each us to journey in life, and to come to eternal life. He teaches us in all of our life's experiences, easy and difficult. He teaches us to be persistent, never to give up on ourselves.

In the first reading the Israelites are on their long journey from Egypt to the promised land. They had to pass through territories occupied by aboriginal tribes, the first being the great and powerful Amaleks. The Israelites were a very small nation in compared to all of the aboriginal tribes that they would meet on their journey to the Promised Land. It would almost seem hopeless that they would ever make it to Canaan. They, at times, seem to be lacking in persistence, but God is always persistent with them and never gives up.

Through the prayers and intercession of Moses standing up on a high mountain, the battle rages, and the Israelites win the encounter, and they continue on their way to the Promised Land.

When we face struggles, how persistent are we, knowing that God is training us, as He did the Israelites, leading us to eternal life?

In the Gospel we have the parable of being persistent.

The widow is asking the judge for what is right and for justice. And yet the judge is very slow in coming to a decision. But it is because of her persistence that the judge decides in her favor. Had she not been persistent...well???

The same was true in the first reading from the Hebrew Scriptures in which the Israelites had to be persistent in renewing their faith in trusting that God that would eventually lead them to the Promised Land.

So perhaps the question we can ask ourselves during the week is... how persistent are we in trusting God?

Are we willing to ask again and again, and to wait again and again for God to act in our lives?

When will we come to understand that God is teaching and training us through all the events, easy and difficult, that lead us to eternal life?

We may even discover we are not very persistent, but want God to do everything instantly for us.

That may be a training for us to pray for the gift to be persistent, to continue to pray to God, asking Him for the grace, courage, and strength to make Him present to others.

Below is another priest's reflection on the Gospel