Today’s readings: Exodus 17, 8-13; 2 Timothy 3,14 - 4,2; Luke 18, 1-8.
It is not only in our times that we are facing big challenges where religion and faith are concerned. In his letter to Timothy in the second reading, Paul reminds him to stand firm by what he had been taught, by who his teachers were, and by the Scriptures from which he can learn wisdom. It is understood that even at such early times, it was very easy for communities and for their leaders to be in disarray, lacking sure points of reference.
The question concluding today’s gospel text is of utmost relevance in this sense: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find any faith on earth?” We need not take this question as referring to the end of time. It is a question that can be seen as addressing constantly the here and now of each time. It is also a call on us all to discern what is it that keeps our faith alive and what is it that debilitates it.
It is crucial for us today to revisit, particularly in the light of what Paul is writing to Timothy, what our sure points of reference are. A generation that has nothing to pass on to the emerging generations is a lost generation. In times such as ours, we cannot afford to live our faith with nostalgia for the past. The more we compare our times with the past, the greater the feeling that we are becoming strangers in a strange land. That makes of us all a homeless people.
What instead we need to rediscover today is the energising effect that faith can still have in connecting with the present, in the face of present-day challenges. Faith can still be empowering, in the words of Paul, to refute falsehood and correct error. The opposite of this is complacency, which debilitates in us the spirit of courage and wisdom we received and which makes us feel helpless and hopeless in the face of a culture which has serious difficulties in discerning between truth and falsehood.
The two readings today that speak of prayer address a context and an issue that are both specifically political. We read of Moses in the first reading with arms raised while his people fought the Amalekites. In the gospel we have the prayer of the widow asking for justice to be done. The Amalekites were attacking Israel in Raphidim, and Israel had to respond, banking on the leadership of Moses and Joshua who provided a sure point of reference for the people. That was the endurance test for God’s people going through a rough patch.
As the gospel parable shows, we need persistence, patience and stamina to keep going, not to lose faith. The judge in the town who “had neither fear of God nor respect for man” is representative quite succinctly of an entire culture today which is stone deaf to the cries of the poor. This is not finger pointing, because there is no one without sin who can actually throw the first stone.
In the face of all that is happening around us, from the infamous Syrian conflict to the diffusion of a racist sentiment throughout Europe, we’ve all lost our innocence. We can no longer pray innocently. Prayer is a way of calling on God to do something. But it is also a pledge of commitment on our part to do something.
How can we pray for the poor without doing anything concrete in their favour? How can we pray for justice when we perpetuate injustices in our daily dealings with others? How can we pray for peace when we are not effective instruments of peace?
In all this, we have lost our innocence. While we pray, we should all acknowledge that we are praying with dirty hands because of our complicities in what causes pain, suffering, injustice and so much disequilibrium around us.