Read­ing Time: 2 minutes

Introduction     

The teach­ing on grat­it­ude is imme­di­ately accom­pan­ied by the teach­ing on con­stancy and non-aban­don­ment. This Sunday Gos­pel presents a very strong psy­cho­lo­gic­al motiv­a­tion. The example Jesus used to back-up his exhorta­tion to con­stancy is that between oppos­ites; between the power­ful and the power­less; between the prom­in­ent and the hid­den; between the highly placed and the lowly; between he who counts in the soci­ety and the worth­less. The story of the law­yer and the woman is that between the weak and the power­ful; the unjust and the inno­cent; between injustice and right­eous­ness; between.…

Prayer and action

“In a cer­tain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a wid­ow who kept com­ing to him and say­ing, grant me justice against my oppon­ent” (Luke 18:2–3). If pray­er is not trans­lated into action, then it is magic and there­fore, waste of time. The wid­ow of the par­able did not remain in her house, wait­ing for some magic­al act to take place. Instead, to her pray­ing, she also acted by con­tinu­ously going to the judge’s house to remind him of his respons­ib­il­ity towards her. I think it was this con­tinu­ous impor­tun­ity that forced the judge who neither feared God nor had any regard for any­body, to deliv­er justice to the wid­ow. Accord­ing to its Lat­in and French ori­gins, pray­er sig­ni­fies obtained through entreaty. This helps to under­stand such syn­onyms as appeal; plea; peti­tion; request; and sup­plic­a­tion. Entreaty is an earn­est or urgent request. Some Eng­lish trans­la­tions cap­tion the pas­sage of our reflec­tion as “the impor­tunate wid­ow.” Now, impor­tunate means express­ing earn­est and urgent request, hence, such cap­tion­ing is adequate. The wid­ow was not request­ing for favour. She was not even ask­ing to be pit­ied. Rather, she was mak­ing earn­est and urgent request to get back what rightly belongs to her. And she had to go to the per­son whose duty and respons­ib­il­ity it was to see that justice reigns in the community.

Conclusion

Often, Chris­ti­ans are not con­stant in pray­er. They are rather insist­ent. While insist­ence is the act of per­sist­ing on some­thing, con­stancy is the qual­ity of being endur­ing and free from change. Con­stancy is faith­ful­ness and depend­ab­il­ity in attach­ment. In this con­text, it is being faith­ful and depend­ent in our attach­ment to God. The con­tem­por­ary for­mula ‘Push Until Some­thing Hap­pens’ (PUSH) is not con­stancy in pray­er. It is insist­ence. It is for­cing God to inter­vene when God has decided not to inter­vene. Some of the pre­requis­ites for pray­ing is faith, obed­i­ence and being just. Any­one who has faith, who obeys and who prac­tices justice need not be per­sist­ent in his or her pray­er. Such per­son simply needs to be con­stant know­ing that God will inter­vene at the appro­pri­ate time. Job was not insist­ent. Rather, he remained faith­ful and was con­stant know­ing he was inno­cent, and God even­tu­ally vin­dic­ated him. We should be con­stant in pray­er, not persistent. 

FOR DETAILS, GET YOUR OWN COPIES OF THE BOOK “THE WORD OF LIFE:
SUNDAY REFLECTIONS” (vols. I‑II-III)!! The reflec­tion for the 29^th Sunday is found in The Word of Life, vol. III, pages 572–584. Happy reading!

For details on how to get it, con­tact the author on this link: https://m.me/uchennabiblia?fbclid=IwAR2yeg4a6sDGBp9QGkIvKj6FSADumMokN6lshdE0zuo-JHs6qOmlhA7jyHo
or email me at: postmaster@uchennabiblia.com
or simply send an SMS on 08116100926, and I will get back to you.

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