I am the Resurrection
Anyone who believes in me, even though that person dies will live
And whoever lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?
The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy.
I have come so that you can have life and have it to the full.
29th Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Exodus 17:8-13, Psalm 120 Rv.2. 2 Tim 3:14-4:2,
As long as Moses kept his arms raised, Israel
My help shall come from the Lord who made heaven and earth.
Scripture is inspired by God and can profitably be used for guiding people’s lives.
Will God not see justice done to his chosen who cry to him day and night?
Luke 18:1-8
1 Then he told them a parable about the need to pray continually and never lose heart. 2 'There was a judge in a certain town,' he said, 'who had neither fear of God nor respect for anyone. 3 In the same town there was also a widow who kept on coming to him and saying, "I want justice from you against my enemy!" 4 For a long time he refused, but at last he said to himself, "Even though I have neither fear of God nor respect for any human person, 5 I must give this widow her just rights since she keeps pestering me, or she will come and slap me in the face." ' 6 And the Lord said, 'You notice what the unjust judge has to say? 7 Now, will not God see justice done to his elect if they keep calling to him day and night even though he still delays to help them? 8 I promise you, he will see justice done to them, and done speedily. But when the Son of man comes, will he find any faith on earth?'
Why fear?
Seeing is believing and what an impact TV makes. Being there is even more impressive and so thousands flock to sports stadiums. To meet your favourite celebrity is a talking point for years. Our problem with God is that we have none of these. There is nothing to appeal to our senses. It is the way of faith. Otherwise, how could we freely choose God? If we saw him as he is, we would be so attracted to him that could we say we had chosen him? Does the insect choose the light? So God has revealed enough about himself to give us grounds to trust and choose him. But we are in silent darkness. All we have is Jesus and his Word.
The central point of today’s parable is that God loves you. You are his dear child, precious to Him. He longs to share everything he has with you, even his divine life. But you don’t realize this because you can’t see him. Jesus tells this parable to encourage you to turn to him as a child turns to a loving father.
Jesus takes an extreme example. In the rural society in which Jesus lived widows were powerless. Here is a widow. She needs justice. She has no husband and apparently no sons to fight her case. She has no way of getting her due, except through law. But the judge won’t care even to listen. He lives in ‘splendid isolation’ caring neither for God nor man. But every day the widow appears before him and keeps begging for justice. At first he ignores her but she keeps on at him. In the end she wears him down and to get rid of her, he gives judgement in her favour. She, the least and the weakest, wins her case against the strongest simply by her persistence.
Now Jesus says, if through persistence a poor widow could win justice from a selfish and unjust judge will not you, a dear child, get justice from a Father who longs to give you everything, even his own divine life Of course you will and quickly.
God longs for us to believe that he loves us. He wants us to be true children seeking him and his righteousness with all our hearts so that he can then do everything for us.
Do I seek his Kingdom and his righteousness? Do you? To lead us on to do so, he may delay. Like children we often don’t know what is good for us. We are swayed by emotions and short term goals. He wants our everlasting happiness, at any cost. And so he wants us to trust his wisdom too.
Do you turn to Abba, your loving Father, as Jesus did, trusting he will save you?
Father, may I not lose a lively faith in your love and goodness towards me.
No comments:
Post a Comment