Scott Hahn with David Scott
The Lord is our guardian, beside us at our right hand, interceding for us in all our spiritual battles.
In today’s Psalm we’re told to lift our eyes to the mountains, that our help will come from Mount Zion and the Temple—the dwelling of the Lord who made heaven and earth.
Joshua and the Israelites, in today’s First Reading, are also told to look to the hilltops. They are to find their help there—through the intercession of Moses—as they defend themselves against their mortal foes, the Amalekites.
Notice the image: Aaron and Hur standing on each side of Moses, holding his weary arms so that he can raise the staff of God above his head. Moses is being shown here as a figure of Jesus, who also climbed a hilltop, and on Mount Calvary stretched out His hands between heaven and earth to intercede for us against the final enemy—sin and death (see 1 Corinthians 15:26).
By the staff of God, Moses bested Israel’s enemies (see Exodus 7:8-12; 8:1-2), parted the Red Sea (see Exodus 14:16) and brought water from the Rock (see Exodus 17:6). The Cross of Jesus is the new staff of God, bringing about a new liberation from sin, bringing forth living waters from the body of Christ, the new Temple of God (see John 2:19-21; 7:37-39; 19:34; 1 Corinthians 10:4).
Like the Israelites and the widow in today’s Gospel, we face opposition and injustice—at times from godless and pitiless adversaries. We, too, must lift our eyes to the mountains—to Calvary and the God who will guard us from all evil.
We must pray always and not be wearied by our trials, Jesus tells us today. As Paul exhorts in today’s Epistle, we need to remain faithful, to turn to the inspired Scriptures—given by God to train us in righteousness.
We must persist, so that when the Son of Man comes again in kingly power, He will indeed find faith on earth.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
from A Simple Path
If you want to set out in search of God without knowing how to go about it, learn to pray: force yourself simply to pray every day. You can pray anywhere, anytime. There’s no need at all to be in a chapel or church. You can pray while working: work doesn’t put a stop to prayer, nor prayer to work. If you feel in need of help, you can ask advice of a priest or pastor.
Try to talk directly to God. Speak to him; tell him everything, spontaneously, directly, just as it comes. He is the Father of us all. Whatever our religion might be, we have all been created by him and are his children. We can trust him, love him, believe in him, work for him. When we pray, our problems are resolved to the degree that it is good for us.
Without prayer I could not fulfil the work it is mine to do, not even for half an hour. I draw my strength from God by prayer.
Pope Benedict XVI
from Homily, October 17, 2010
This Sunday’s Liturgy offers us a fundamental teaching: the need to pray always, without tiring. At times we grow weary of praying, we have the impression that prayer is not so useful for life, that it is not very effective. We are therefore tempted to throw ourselves into activity, to use all the human means for attaining our goals and we do not turn to God. Jesus himself says that it is necessary to pray always, and does so in a specific parable (cf. Lk 18: 1-8).
This parable speaks to us of a judge who does not fear God and is no respecter of persons: a judge without a positive outlook, who only seeks his own interests. He neither fears God’s judgement nor respects his neighbour. The other figure is a widow, a person in a situation of weakness. In the Bible, the widow and the orphan are the neediest categories, because they are defenceless and without means.
The widow goes to the judge and asks him for justice. Her possibilities of being heard are almost none, because the judge despises her and she can bring no pressure to bear on him. She cannot even appeal to religious principles because the judge does not fear God. Therefore this widow seems without any recourse. But she insists, she asks tirelessly, importuning him, and in the end she succeeds in obtaining a result from the judge.
At this point Jesus makes a reflection, using the argument a fortiori: if a dishonest judge ends by letting himself be convinced by a widow’s plea, how much more will God, who is good, answer those who pray to him. God in fact is generosity in person, he is merciful and is therefore always disposed to listen to prayers. Therefore we must never despair but always persist in prayer.
The conclusion of the Gospel passage speaks of faith: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Lk 18: 8). It is a question that intends to elicit an increase of faith on our part. Indeed it is clear that prayer must be an expression of faith, otherwise it is not true prayer. If one does not believe in God’s goodness, one cannot pray in a truly appropriate manner.
Faith is essential as the basis of a prayerful attitude.
Pope Benedict XVI
from Homily, Naples, October 21, 2007
The main theme of the Word of God is prayer; indeed, we “ought always to pray and not lose heart”, as the Gospel says (cf. Lk 18: 1). … This Word contains a message that certainly goes against the tide and yet is destined to illuminate in depth the conscience of this Church and city. …
I would sum it up like this: the power that changes the world and transforms it into the Kingdom of God, in silence and without fanfare, is faith – and prayer is the expression of faith. When faith is filled with love for God, recognized as a good and just Father, prayer becomes persevering, insistent, it becomes a groan of the spirit, a cry of the soul that penetrates God’s Heart.
Thus, prayer becomes the greatest transforming power in the world. In the face of a difficult and complex social reality … it is essential to strengthen hope which is based on faith and expressed in unflagging prayer. It is prayer that keeps the torch of faith alight.
Jesus asks, as we heard at the end of the Gospel: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Lk 18: 8). It is a question that makes us think. What will be our answer to this disturbing question? Today, let us repeat together with humble courage: Lord, in coming among us at this Sunday celebration you find us gathered together with the lamp of faith lit. We believe and trust in you! Increase our faith!
The biblical Readings we have heard present several models to inspire us in our profession of faith, which is also always a profession of hope because faith and hope open the earth to divine power, to the power for good. They are the figures of the widow, whom we encounter in the Gospel parable, and of Moses, of whom the Book of Exodus speaks.
The widow of the Gospel (cf. Lk 18: 1-8) makes us think of the “little”, the lowliest, but also of so many simple, upright people who suffer because of abuse, who feel powerless in the face of the perduring social malaise and are tempted to despair. To them Jesus repeats: look at this poor widow, with what tenacity does she insist and in the end succeeds in being heard by a dishonest judge! How could you imagine that your Heavenly Father, who is good and faithful and powerful, who desires only his children’s good, would not do justice to you in his own time?
Faith assures us that God hears our prayers and grants them at the appropriate moment, although our daily experience seems to deny this certainty. In fact, in the face of certain events in the news or of life’s numerous daily hardships which the press does not even mention, the supplication of the ancient Prophet: “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you, “Violence!’ and you will not save?” (Heb 1: 2) wells up in the heart spontaneously.
There is one answer to this heartfelt invocation: God cannot change things without our conversion, and our true conversion begins with the “cry” of the soul imploring forgiveness and salvation. Christian prayer is not, therefore, an expression of fatalism or inertia; on the contrary, it is the opposite of evasion from reality, from consoling intimism. It is the force of hope, the maximum expression of faith in the power of God who is Love and does not abandon us.
The prayer Jesus taught us which culminated in Gethsemane has the character of “competitiveness”, that is, of a struggle because we line up with determination at the Lord’s side to fight injustice and conquer evil with good; it is the weapon of the lowly and the poor in spirit, who reject every type of violence. Indeed, they respond to it with evangelical non-violence, thereby testifying that the truth of Love is stronger than hatred and death.
This also emerges in the First Reading, the famous account of the battle between the Israelites and Amalek’s men (cf. Ex 17: 8-13a). It was precisely prayer, addressed with faith to the true God, that determined the fate of that harsh conflict. While Joshua and his men were tackling their adversaries on the battlefield, Moses was standing on the hilltop, his hands uplifted in the position of a person praying. These raised hands of the great leader guaranteed Israel’s victory. God was with his people; he wanted them to win but made Moses’ uplifted hands the condition for his intervention.
It seems incredible, but that is how it is: God needs the raised hands of his servant! Moses’ raised arms are reminiscent of the arms of Jesus on the Cross: the outspread, nailed arms with which the Redeemer won the crucial battle against the infernal enemy. His fight, his arms raised to the Father and wide open for the world, ask for other arms, other hearts that continue to offer themselves with his same love until the end of the world. I am addressing you in particular, dear Pastors of the Church … making my own the words that St Paul address to Timothy and that we heard in the Second Reading: remain firm in what you have learned and have believed. Preach the word, persevere on every occasion, in season and out of season, convince, rebuke and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching (cf. II Tim 3: 14, 16; 4: 2). And like Moses on the mountain, persevere in prayer for and with the faithful entrusted to your pastoral care, so that every day they may be able to face together the good fight of the Gospel.
