Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 147
Reading 1
In those days, Amalek came and waged war against Israel.
Moses, therefore, said to Joshua,
"Pick out certain men,
and tomorrow go out and engage Amalek in battle.
I will be standing on top of the hill
with the staff of God in my hand."
So Joshua did as Moses told him:
he engaged Amalek in battle
after Moses had climbed to the top of the hill with Aaron and Hur.
As long as Moses kept his hands raised up,
Israel had the better of the fight,
but when he let his hands rest,
Amalek had the better of the fight.
Moses'hands, however, grew tired;
so they put a rock in place for him to sit on.
Meanwhile Aaron and Hur supported his hands,
one on one side and one on the other,
so that his hands remained steady till sunset.
And Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people
with the edge of the sword.
Responsorial Psalm
R.(cf. 2) Our help is from the Lord, who made
heaven and earth.
I lift up my eyes toward the mountains;
whence shall help come to me?
My help is from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
R. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
May he not suffer your foot to slip;
may he slumber not who guards you:
indeed he neither slumbers nor sleeps,
the guardian of Israel.
R. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
The LORD is your guardian; the LORD is your shade;
he is beside you at your right hand.
The sun shall not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
R. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
The LORD will guard you from all evil;
he will guard your life.
The LORD will guard your coming and your going,
both now and forever.
R. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Reading 2
Beloved:
Remain faithful to what you have learned and believed,
because you know from whom you learned it,
and that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures,
which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation
through faith in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is inspired by God
and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction,
and for training in righteousness,
so that one who belongs to God may be competent,
equipped for every good work.
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,
who will judge the living and the dead,
and by his appearing and his kingly power:
proclaim the word;
be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient;
convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The word of God is living and effective,
discerning reflections and thoughts of the heart.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus told his disciples a parable
about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.
He said, "There was a judge in a certain town
who neither feared God nor respected any human being.
And a widow in that town used to come to him and say,
'Render a just decision for me against my adversary.'
For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought,
'While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being,
because this widow keeps bothering me
I shall deliver a just decision for her
lest she finally come and strike me.'"
The Lord said, "Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says.
Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones
who call out to him day and night?
Will he be slow to answer them?
I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily.
But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,
Being persistent in our faith as well as being consistent will lead to a deeper relationship with God. It will also mold our thoughts and behaviors around our relationship with Him instead of around other things which are cause for distraction. I really enjoy Paul’s exhortation to the Thessalonians in his letter: “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” This is a call to vigilance and commitment. Committing ourselves to a deep prayer life and understanding that prayers are important, since they are indeed a conversation with God, will have a positive effect on all thoughts and actions. Saint Mother Theresa used to say continuously, “Just pray.” This should be our saying also. The amount of miracles witnessed through this simple act of faith were simply astounding.
It was 1982. War was breaking out. Shells were dropping in PLO strongholds in West Beirut. As the invasion continued, it was estimated 500 civilians had been killed and another 1,000 wounded. Mother Teresa wanted to get to West Beirut, and see to the needs of the people there. Even though she had not been informed, she “had knowledge” that somewhere behind enemy lines there were people in need of her special kind of rescuing.
Frail, hunched over, wearing her diminutive thin cotton sari, she was outnumbered in a room full of upstanding, uniformed military leaders and men of the cloth dwarfing her pure intent. In no uncertain terms her desires were dismissed.
“Mother, do you hear the bombing?” the British father asked, somewhat incredulously.
“Yes, I hear it,” she responded firmly. “It’s absolutely impossible for you to go there. A priest was killed two weeks ago for no reason! They just wanted to kill a priest! Even if you get over there, we may not be able to get you back. Now, this is a nice idea you have. But—”
Mother Teresa straightened up to silence his patronizing tone. “It is not an idea. It is our duty.”
And then she patiently explained, as she did to so many, “You see, I always feel like this. Many years back, when I picked up the very first person, if I didn’t pick up that person, at that time, I would never have picked up forty-two thousand. One at a time.” Like the beloved teacher she was, she would take everyone back to square one. Keeping it simple.
As the saga continued, he relentlessly attempted to talk her out of this foolhardy mission. “It is absolutely impossible for you to cross at this present time.” The word “impossible” was not in Mother Teresa’s vocabulary. “We would have to have a cease-fire first,” he added. Mother Teresa was not backing down. And he had just given her an opening.
“Oh, but I have been praying to Our Lady,” Mother stated confidently. “And I have asked her to let us have a cease-fire here ~ tomorrow.”
Trying in vain to conceal his skepticism, he placated her quietly. “Mother, if we have a cease-fire, I will personally make the arrangements to see that you go to West Beirut tomorrow.” Mother Teresa’s simple and finite response to that was, “We shall pray.”
The film dissolved softly to a tiny room that had been transformed into a makeshift chapel and there, on screen, was the image of Mother Teresa surrounded by her Sisters, all on their knees, praying together. Through the night they prayed. This would add to the growing body of evidence that when people unify with focused, specific intention and feeling, even in a nondenominational mass prayer, they can produce effects that reach far beyond the sanctuary where the prayer had been given.
The soundtrack of the film became quiet as the camera recorded the sun rising over Beirut the next morning. Suddenly the voice of the British Red Cross captain came through. In contrast to the discussion of the night before, he spoke with an almost comic awestruck tone as he said, “I think we should take full advantage of the fact that we have a cease-fire of sorts.” Very quickly, he pulled out a map and unfolded it for Mother Teresa to grasp the situation fully. “There are sixty totally deficient spastic children in a center, here. There is no staff there to look after them and it’s been shelled a number of times. Many people have been killed.” He leaned close to Mother Teresa and added, “I should like to take you there.”
These words don’t give credit to the full impact of that event in 1982. In the face of so many obstacles and so much resistance, Saint Mother Teresa turned everything over to God and just prayed. The result speaks for itself. Jesus reminds us of the simple act of praying. We can be persistent in many aspects of our lives, why not prayer?
“Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones
who call out to him day and night?
Will he be slow to answer them?”
He will never let us down. He will never abandon us. The only danger is us abandoning Him.
Deacon Tom
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