Twenty Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Whenever we feel unjustly treated, it can often generate energy in us to get the justice we feel we are entitled to. In the parable that Jesus speaks in today’s gospel reading, a widow is convinced that she has been unjustly treated. To get what she is entitled to, she goes to court. However, she had the misfortune to come up against a judge who had neither fear of God nor respect for others. He simply ignored the widow’s plea for justice. According to the Jewish Scriptures, widows would often need the protection of judges, because they were so vulnerable. We look to our politicians and our judiciary to make a special effort to protect and defend the weakest and most vulnerable among us.

Here was a weak, vulnerable, woman struggling to get what she was entitled to from a powerful, unaccountable, man. We know from our own experience that there can be great strength in those who appear to be weak. A small group of seemingly weak people, when energized by a passion for justice, can prove to have surprising power. Because they know that right is on their side, they never give up. Thy fight on against the odds, sometimes in the face of vested interests who have much more resources at their disposal. Sometimes, their persistence wins out and they get the justice that should never have been denied them. One of the beatitudes of Jesus applies to them, ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for what is right, for they shall be satisfied’. Today is Mission Sunday, and Jesus’ mission was driven by his hunger and thirst for justice, for what is right. This remains Jesus’ mission today, a mission he has entrusted to us all.

The widow in Jesus’ parable has the kind of dogged persistence in the face of justice denied that characterized Jesus’ own mission. She kept on coming to the judge, saying, ‘I want justice from you against my enemy’. She kept turning up at the court, day after day. She may have run into a brick wall, but she herself was an immovable force. She never lost heart or hope. Eventually, the judge seems to have got the measure of this widow. He came to realize that she was just going to keep pestering him until she got justice. He began to fear that she might worry him to death. Eventually, he gave her the justice she was entitled to. The vulnerable widow exhausted the judge into justice. Saint Paul in one of his letters speaks of God’s power often being made perfect in weakness. It was the Lord’s own passion for justice that was powerfully at work through this vulnerable woman. Jesus’ portrayal of the widow in his parable calls on us to have her persistent spirit as we engage in the Lord’s mission to those who are denied justice today. She inspires us to live the beatitude that Jesus fully embodied, ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for what is right’, for the justice that God desires for all. In today’s second reading, Saint Paul calls on Timothy to have something of this persistent spirit in his mission, his work of proclaiming the gospel, ‘Proclaim the message, and, welcome or unwelcome, insist on it’.

Our mission to seek justice for all, to hunger and thirst for what is right, needs to be sustained by prayer. We need to keep turning to our heavenly Father, praying for the coming of God’s kingdom, God’s just rule on earth. Whereas the widow was petitioning an unjust judge, in prayer we are petitioning a God who, in the words of the gospel reading, wants to see justice done for those who cry out to him day and night. When it comes to prayer, especially the prayer for the coming of God’s justice for all, we need the persevering spirit of the widow. Persistent and trusting prayer is needed in the face of evil forces that treat others unjustly. There are some situations that are so evil and so unjust that we can feel powerless before them. We can be tempted to ‘lose heart’, in the words of the gospel reading. Yet, the widow in today’s parable shows us that we are never powerless, no matter how weak we feel. Our persistent prayer can create an opening for the Lord to work through us in ways that will help to bring his justice closer for all.

If we bring that persistent spirit into our prayer, especially our prayer for all who are being denied justice, that spirit will flow over into our actions on behalf of others. Our prayer is more likely to be persistent if it is supported by the persistent prayer of others. In the first reading we have that image of Moses’ arms lifted up in prayer being supported on either side by Aaron and Hur. The widow in the parable seemed very much alone. There is no reference to family members or friends supporting her. We are not alone in our prayerful pursuit of God’s justice. We are members of a community of faith, called to pray and work together for the triumph of God’s justice in our world.