Ex 17:8-13
2 Tm 3:14-4:2
Lk 18:1-8
I have been told in the course of my life that I am persistent. OK, stubborn, pig-headed, hard-headed, but persistent just sounds so much better. I have to admit that I can be a bit relentless in the pursuit of a goal, but I have always seen this as a virtue, not a failing. It can be annoying I suppose, but even Jesus points out that persistence, being stubborn, can be a virtue. The woman in pursuit of a just judgment from the unjust judge achieves her goal by being stubborn. She refuses to give up, pushing her petition until the judge relents. Christ asks us to be as persistent, as stubborn, in pursuit of our goal, salvation. Pray unceasingly, petition God without becoming weary. That is the hard part. We can pray for hours on end, weeks or months or years on end, seemingly without effect. At times the easier course would be to give up. Why keep pounding your head against a wall if the wall never moves? One of our problems is that we insist on doing this alone. We never need to be alone in our stubborn pursuit of God. Moses led the people of Israel into battle with Amalek. As long as Moses held his hand up, Israel won, When Moses tired and lowered his hands, the battle turned against them. Moses needed help. Aaron and Hur held his hand up, joined him in his petition, until the battle was won. We need one another, we are meant to rely on one another. Being persistent, being stubborn is hard work. We need support, we need to be held up, to hold each other up, as we stubbornly pursue God. Together we must be stubborn, so that when the Son of Man comes he will find faith on earth.
Deacon John
29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Oct. 21, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I agree with you wholeheartedly that we should support each other with stubborn loving prayer and also help our brothers and sisters to carry an honest spiritual reality heavy load when humanly possible while keeping in mind Jesus Christ Faith Check-UPS. In other words there’s no short cuts and we must begin every day our Christian Reality Check Walk and that’s why we humans at one time or another in our life all fall short of God’s Kingdom and them who think otherwise, all we can do is pray that they are never put to the test and realize in time that Christ already did The JOB for us and all we need do is hang on to His Faith and if we find ourselves with a little extra we simply need to ask God to be our spiritual broker and pass the extra Blessings where they are truly needed the most and needless to say He Knows and I honestly believe that He's taken care of IT already.
Go Figure!
God Bless
Post a Comment