HOMILY FOR THE 29TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C (6)

HOMILY FOR THE 29TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C

THEME: PRAY CONTINUALLY AND DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED.

BY: Fr Johnbosco Mbah- Offor.

HOMILY FOR SUNDAY OCTOBER 16 2022

Exo 17:8-13, 2 Tim 3:14-4:2; Luke 18:1-8

Prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned towards heaven. Prayer is a communication between the ordinary and extra-ordinary, a communication between humanity and divinity, a communication between us and God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church no 2559, defines prayer as, the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.

The Gospel of today taken from Luke 18:1-8, tells us about the importance of praying without losing heart. Today’s aspect of prayer is on the need to persevere in prayer. Jesus told his disciples a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, ” in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor regarded man; and there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘ vindicate me against my adversary. For a while he refused; but afterwards he said to himself, though I neither fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will vindicate her, or she will wear me out by her continual coming. ”

There are two characters in this parable told by Jesus. They are: The judge and the widow. The judge was ungodly, both as a man and as a judge. Yet in the end he answered the woman’s request. The only reason he gave her what she wanted was because the woman wouldn’t stop bothering him.

William Barclay points out that this would not have been a Jewish judge, because disputes in the Jewish world were brought to the elders. This judge was one of the paid magistrates appointed either by Herod or the Romans. Such judges were notorious. Unless plaintiffs had influence and money to bribe their way to a verdict they had no hope of ever getting a case settled.The widow was the symbol of those who were poor and defenceless. She had one weapon and that is persistence.

Jesus did not give this parable to say that God was like the unjust, but unlike him. God loves to answer our prayers, and He even helps us when we pray. God is always on our side whenever we pray to Him. Prayer is the source of energy for Christians.

Jesus prayed always. Prayer occupied a very prominent place in His earthly life. When Jesus was baptized, He was praying ( Lk 3:21). In Lk 5:16, the Bible recorded that He would often withdraw to solitary places and pray. He spent a lot of His time in prayer. We should always pray and ask God to grant our needs. St James would say, ” you have not, because you have not asked”( Jams 4:2). We should ask and ask persistently like the widow in today’s Gospel. If that widow could get justice granted to her by the wicked judge, how much more shall we get blessings of mercy and grace from our loving Father.

This parable told by Jesus is a parable of encouragement. Christians should never cease praying and pleading for redemptive justice. Such perseverance in prayer has to be inspired by faith in Jesus Christ. We need others to help us keep praying. In Exodus 17: 8-13, Moses became tired, Aaron and Hur helped him to keep his hand up in prayers. We need people that will support us whenever we are tired or down in prayer. We need to be attending prayer meetings, going to Church and listening to the word of God so that we can be encouraged to pray persistently.

We should desire to pray and love prayers. We should pray not just because we have to but because we ought to. A prayerful child of God is a powerful child of God.
Happy Sunday !