Exodus 17:8-13 2^nd Timothy 3:14 – 4:2 Luke 18:1-8

Jesus’ parable about prayer in today’s Gospel text and the Exodus narrative about Moses’ praying for victory in a battle against the Amalekites are challenging to modern Church members’ ideas about prayer. Both purport to be about prayerful perseverance, but each also embodies a fairly common, if erroneous, expectation in prayer, i.e., the desire to influence God in order to adjust the outcome in the present lived reality. This certainly can seem a noble and generally positive desire. However, it might be enlightening to consider whether this ought to be an ordinary expectation in prayer.

Without any desire to trivialize prayer, sometimes we do pray without the responsible thoughtfulness we might. For example, imagine rival high school football teams each of which have a pre-game prayer time for victory. The problem only intensifies when the two teams are from rival Catholic high schools each with a pre-game Eucharistic liturgy praying for victory. Do the teams really want and expect God to elect one to be a favorite over the other? I assert “No!” but praying for divine intervention in that circumstance does appear to treat prayer with more than a little superstitious optimism. Rather, healthy intercessory prayer is really prayer for divine justice, i.e. God’s Will. Moses’ arms were extended in prayer in his plea for a just victory over pagan Gentiles who opposed the freedom pilgrimage of God’s Chosen people. His extended arms were not magical gestures, but a posture of prayerful request. (Indeed, ancient Israelites made little or no distinction between divine power and human magic. Today, we deny any connection between the two.) Jesus’ parable about the widow’s quest for justice in spite of an unjust judge, was neither trivial nor manipulative. Her virtue was, like that of Moses in holding his hands up in prayer (even with aid), in persevering in the cause of justice. For intercessory prayer to be legitimate and reasonable, sincere and “according to God’s Will,” it must always be prayer for a just cause. Hence, a prayer for a miracle when a person has been found to be effectively brain dead is hardly a just prayer. Such a prayerful endeavor reveals more about the inability of those doing the praying (their inability or unwillingness to accept God’s Will through reality) than any great faith in God. We need to be realistic, mature, responsible and intellectually open in our prayer style and attitude precisely so that we can engage life with realism, maturity, responsibility . . . and peace. Likewise, to quickly label an unexpected positive development to be “a miracle” might be a harsh and inaccurate, even if happy, conclusion. In the Exodus narrative, the well-being of God’s Chosen People was the principal just cause of the moment. The widow in the parable sought justice to which she was entitled. In other words, both Moses and the widow were seeking God’s Will, neither mere personal preference nor selfish personal success. Thus, we must always remember that seemingly innocuous line in the Lord’s own prayer addressed to God, “... Thy Will be done on earth as in heaven...” That might well be the most basic intercessory prayer one can make. And, in spite of our own personal preferences, certitudes, biases, rationales, fears and urgencies, we ought to measure any intercession we pray by that particular one. Do I pray to the Provident God for “My will?” or “Thy Will?”

The text from 2^nd Timothy is a continuation of pastoral advice from Paul, the Apostle, to Timothy the local Church leader (what we would call a pastor or even a bishop in later Church history). In essence, Paul is exhorting a youthful Timothy to persevere, to stand fast, and to “remain faithful” to the Tradition he had received. Paul is encouraging him to “proclaim the word” as the principal activity by which to be faithful to the Gospel message. “The word” here means “the whole Gospel message.” What Gospel message? The Incarnation and Paschal Mysteries, and the announcement of God’s Kingdom as the principal metaphor for salvation. There are numerous temptations in and among any era’s Church leadership to digress into secondary programs and activities, none of which make any theological sense unless they are founded on the Gospel message itself. The exhortation to “be persistent whether convenient or inconvenient” is a realistic appreciation that Gospel life is lived in any and all circumstances. The proclamation of “the word” is the kerygmatic dimension of the early Church. The lived culture (the peoples’ lives) in which the Gospel is proclaimed incarnates the word and the word in turn critiques the culture (the peoples’ lives) in which the Gospel lives.

Life is quite messy. But, we believers in the Gospel commit ourselves to engaging just such messy lives, just as Jesus engaged people in his day. Such engagement generally leads to the cross and to life anew!