29th Sunday Year C - Homily 6

Homily 6 -2022

Tonight’s parable presented us with a woman who, given a judge’s resistance to her pleas, could easily have lost hope. In her case, her determination to keep trying was strong enough to prevail over the judge’s initial refusal to listen to her. 
 
Luke seemed to have been uncertain how to use Jesus’ parable -- how to make it relevant to the questions that were being faced by the little Christian community to which he belonged, and for which he was compiling his Gospel. Drawing on the existing treasure of memories of the various teachings of Jesus circulating in the Church, he listed one or two of them, hoping they might speak to one of the big questions that was currently disturbing the community.
 
Almost invariably, the early Christians had presumed that Jesus would “speedily” come back to earth in glory to usher in the Last Day and the Final Judgment of God. His non-appearance began to undermine not just the patience of many of them but their faith as well: as Luke quoted Jesus saying before his death and resurrection, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find any faith on earth?”. In response to their wondering, Luke quoted Jesus’ assurance to the effect, “Now will not God see justice done to his chosen … even when he delays to help them? … He will see justice done to them and done speedily”.
 
Through tonight’s Gospel passage, might Jesus have something to say to us? I gather that currently there are a number of parishioners concerned about the Church’s future. Even before Covid, numbers had begun gradually but inexorably dropping. The disturbances of the last couple of Covid years seem only to have aggravated the trend. What is going on?
 
Part of our problem is that many of us seem to have presumed that the Church that we were familiar with, especially as we remembered it a generation or two ago, might at least have continued as it had been and might even grow from strength to strength. It hasn’t! What is our current experience doing to our faith? Are we hoping against hope that God will “see justice done to his chosen … even when he delays to help [us]? … will see justice done speedily?”
 
On Monday this week we celebrated sixty years since the Second Vatican Council was launched. The aim of the Council was to look closely at the Church and to see what needed bringing up to date. The result was a wonderful and inspiring vision. Almost immediately, however the secular culture, especially Western culture, began to change radically. In the confusion, the vision of Vatican II was not grasped clearly, and the Council was hardly implemented. Thank God, currently the Church is embarking on re-discovering the treasures of the Council and seeking to find ways to apply the vision within the changing needs of today.
 
Perhaps our knowledge of the early Church may be sufficient to remind us that God’s interventions cannot be anticipated with any certainty, may even remind us that our God is a God of surprises. We do not need certainties that we can control – we need faith: real faith that brings a different kind of certitude.
 
Better than everything, I believe, is to learn to trust Jesus personally. And to do that, without feeling that we are simply “blowing in the wind’, we need to come to know him intimately. There is no magic wand. But prayer does work its effect, given time and persistence – which is why Jesus stressed the “need to pray continually and never lose heart”.
 
We must not mis-interpret the parable. The unjust judge is in no way a symbol of God. Continuing prayer will not change the mind or heart of God. Continuing prayer, however, will change us.