This morning’s Gospel reading is Luke 18:1–8:
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?”
Ever see the film Evan Almighty? The sequel to Jim Carrey’s hit Bruce Almighty failed to measure up in several ways to the original, but it had some moments, thanks mainly to Steve Carrell, who played a man who reluctantly had to become a modern Noah. Evan not only doesn’t want to answer God’s call, he actively resists it … for a while, anyway. But once Evan accepts that God wants him to build an ark, he perseveres — even when it brings him professional ruin, financial destruction, and the (temporary) loss of his family. Evan keeps misunderstanding God’s plans and makes a fool of himself at times, but he sticks with it, having a reluctant but still complete faith in the Lord.
The plot’s too convoluted to work, but it does provide a good model of perseverance, faith, and even the value of prayer. Twice in the film, when Evan is stuck and desperate, he cries out to the Lord for help, both times in the last act of the film. First, when the city shows up to wreck the ark and a crowd gathers to jeer him, Evan pleads, “Is it too much to ask for a little precipitation?” Amusingly, that’s exactly what Evan gets — a brief cloudburst that quickly stops — as Evan’s plea is for himself rather than to conform to the Lord’s plans..
But when the local dam breaks and the real flood begins, Evan’s prayer has a different outcome. Evan gets the people that gathered to watch the confrontation onto the ark just in time. The flood lifts the arc, which then rides the flood through central DC (don’t ask) and looks as though it will crash into a bridge. Evan raises his staff and shouts, “How about a little help here?” God answers by providing a massive wave and direction change that brings the ark right onto Capitol Hill (please don’t ask). When Evan prays in a way that relies on faith in the Lord, the results are more fruitful.
Today’s Gospel and scripture readings both demonstrate the necessity of perseverance and the need to ask for the Lord’s help. Our first reading from Exodus 17 especially brought to mind the scene from Evan Almighty in the ark. As Moses led the Israelites through the desert, a local warlord named Amalek began attacking them. Moses ordered Joshua to put together an army, which Moses would help by raising his arms “with the staff of God in my hand.” This is a form of prayer — a prayer for intervention from the Lord.
While Moses kept his arms up in supplication to the Lord, Joshua’s army succeeded — but when Moses tired and dropped his arms, Amalek and his forces got the upper hand. Moses needed to persevere to save his people, and he also needed help in doing so. He could not sustain this on his own, so it became instead a collaborative effort:
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.
How were the Israelites saved? Through perseverance, complete faith, and the Lord’s help — and through community action on His behalf. Moses could not do it on his own, and neither could Joshua.
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In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus teaches us about perseverance in adversity and the necessity of faith to undergird it. Why did the widow in this parable keep pestering the corrupt judge to give her justice? For one, she knew in her heart that her cause was just, and she had faith in the system within her community could deliver it. It’s worth noting that Jesus specifies that the judge himself did not belong to that community in any real sense; he “neither feared God nor respected any human being,” which set him apart from even the system of justice he supposedly served.
And yet, the widow persevered, in faith to the Law of the scriptures and implicitly in the Lord whom it served. Her perseverance finally wore down the corrupt judge, and Jesus makes the contrast plain in his explanation. If perseverance for justice and mercy can work with a judge who rejects all of these qualities, how much more will it succeed with the Judge in whom all of these qualities originate?
However, Jesus warns, this starts with faith. Without faith there is no perseverance. Without perseverance in prayer, our faith grows weak and easily discarded. Rather than look to the Lord for true salvation, justice, and mercy, we begin to rely on our own power to acquire all of those.
And that is precisely what leads us astray. Salvation history is littered with examples of God’s people choosing their own temporal ambitions and power over doing the Lord’s will and His work on spreading His word. Adam and Eve made that choice in the Garden, and the people of Noah’s time did exactly the same thing, leading to their destruction. The Israelite kings adopted idolatry to pursue worldly power rather than hew to the Lord’s will, and eventually got destroyed for it — in Judea, twice.
Rather than persevere in faith and putting aside their own appetites in favor of the Lord’s will, they persevered for their own ambitions. Moses could have just said, “Hey, I’m tired, and this is Joshua’s problem.” The widow in Jesus’ parable could have chosen to bitterly withdraw and suffer her indignity. Instead, like Evan in the film, they chose to have faith in the Lord and serve Him even while being perhaps mystified as to what He had in mind.
In the end, faith and perseverance saved all of them. (Even Evan, although we can be thankful that the producers didn’t persevere long enough to try another sequel.) Perseverance in faith and trust in the Lord will see us through as well — perhaps not how we want, perhaps not in achieving our temporal ambitions, but He will see us through to salvation. The starting point for all of us is perseverance in prayer, which will give us the strength for that journey.
Addendum: Here’s the flood scene from Evan Almighty, in case you’ve never seen it. At least the special effects were pretty decent.
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The front page image is a detail from “Moses asks for victory supported by Aaron and Hur” by Aasta Hansteen, 1856. On display at the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. Via Wikimedia Commons.
“Sunday Reflection” is a regular feature, looking at the specific readings used in today’s Mass in Catholic parishes around the world. The reflection represents only my own point of view, intended to help prepare myself for the Lord’s day and perhaps spark a meaningful discussion. Previous Sunday Reflections from the main page can be found here.
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