Persistent in Prayer | Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time | Sunday Reflection

“Pray always without becoming weary.”

To be a disciple of Jesus is to follow him along the road that he walks to his destiny in Jerusalem. The evangelist Luke is not unique in presenting the idea of following Jesus, but, in his own fashion, he emphasizes following Jesus in way that makes Christian discipleship not only the acceptance of Jesus’ teaching but also the identification of oneself with the Lord’s way of life and destiny in an intimate and personal way: the disciple must follow in the footsteps of Jesus. The disciple who follows Jesus quickly appreciates the importance of ongoing communion with God. Jesus is depicted in Luke as praying more often than he is in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John. Indeed, one cannot miss the significant role of prayer in Luke’s account of Jesus’ ministry, and the continual reference to prayer that will continue throughout Luke’s second volume, in the Acts of the Apostles.

In Luke, we see Jesus praying before his baptism, before he chooses the Twelve whom he names apostles, before Peter’s confession and the first announcement of his passion, at his Transfiguration, at the Last Supper, during his agony on the Mount of Olives, and on the cross. Seeing Jesus pray, the disciples ask him to teach them to pray, which leads to his teaching them the model prayer: the Our Father. Then, over the course of the journey to Jerusalem, Jesus will present the disciples with a group of sayings and parables that emphasize the need for persistence in prayer. Following the parable of the neighbor in need at midnight, Jesus offers the encouragement, “ask and you shall receive; seek and you will find; know and it shall be opened to you. For whoever asks, receives; whoever seeks finds; whoever knocks, is admitted’ (Luke 11:9f.). Jesus proclaims the generosity of the heavenly Father and encourages his disciples to be persistent in prayer.

Disciples in Jesus’ day and in our day want and need the guidance and example of our Lord to learn more about how to pray, and they are not disappointed. In today’s gospel, Jesus tells a parable about the need to pray always, never wearying. The main character is a widow whose insistent pleading with a dishonest judge succeeds in obtaining justice from him. Jesus concludes that if the widow succeeded in convincing that judge, do you think that God will not listen to us if we pray to him with insistence? Jesus’ words are very strong. “And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who call out to him day and night?”

Jesus’ teaching once again makes it very clear: constant prayer and confidence in God’s promises are necessary. At the same time, our constancy – or better, our faithfulness – need to be balanced by the virtue of patience. We saw the way patience and persistence in the prayer of Moses were instrumental in the Israelites’ victory over their enemy in the First Reading. In the Gospel, the widow also manifests both qualities, and Jesus uses the image of the persistent widow to encourage his disciples to call out day and night to God.

A dozen years ago, Pope Francis reflected on this Gospel passage and said,

Calling out day and night” to God! This image of prayer is striking, but let us ask ourselves: Why does God want this? Doesn’t he already know what we need? What does it mean to “persevere” with God?

This is a good question that makes us examine an important aspect of our faith. God invites us to pray insistently not because he is unaware of our needs or because he is not listening to us. On the contrary, he is always listening, and he lovingly knows everything about us. On our daily journey, especially in times of difficulty, in the battle against the evil that is outside and within us, the Lord is not far away, he is by our side. We battle with him beside us, and our weapon is prayer, which makes us feel his presence beside us, his mercy, and also his help. But the battle against evil is a long and hard one; it requires patience and endurance, as it did of Moses who had to keep his arms outstretched for the people to prevail (1st reading from Exodus 17). This is how it is; there is a battle to be waged each day, but God is our ally, faith in him is our strength, and prayer is the expression of this faith.

[Pope Francis, The Gospel of Luke: A Spiritual & Pastoral Reading, Orbis, 2021, 232-33]

Continuous prayer inspired by faith and accompanied by submission to God’s will has always been the ideal of the Church and central to Christian discipleship. Christians have always attempted in various ways to “pray without ceasing.” The prayers and scriptures today urge us to reflect on the fervor with which we pray and the methods we use.

Today, we turn once again to our loving, generous, and merciful God, and we pray that He will continue to hear our prayers, that He will sustain us in times of difficulty, and that He will help us to always place our complete trust in Him and in His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. With the assistance of the Holy Spirit, may our persistence in prayer not only be for our benefit but also be a guide and a help to others to grow in their relationship with our Lord.