Reading I
Ex 17:8-13
In those days, Amalek came and waged war against
Moses, therefore, said to Joshua,
"Pick out certain men,
and tomorrow go out and engage Amalek in battle.
I will be standing on top of the hill
with the staff of God in my hand."
So Joshua did as Moses told him:
he engaged Amalek in battle
after Moses had climbed to the top of the hill with Aaron and Hur.
As long as Moses kept his hands raised up,
but when he let his hands rest,
Amalek had the better of the fight.
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.
Responsorial
Psalm
Ps 121:1-2,
3-4, 5-6, 7-8
R. (cf. 2) Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
I lift up my eyes toward the mountains;
whence shall help come to me?
My help is from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
R. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
May he not suffer your foot to slip;
may he slumber not who guards you:
indeed he neither slumbers nor sleeps,
the guardian of
R. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
The LORD is your guardian; the LORD is your shade;
he is beside you at your right hand.
The sun shall not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
R. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
The LORD will guard you from all evil;
he will guard your life.
The LORD will guard your coming and your going,
both now and forever.
R. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Reading II
2 Tm
3:14-4:2
Beloved:
Remain faithful to what you have learned and believed,
because you know from whom you learned it,
and that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures,
which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation
through faith in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is inspired by God
and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction,
and for training in righteousness,
so that one who belongs to God may be competent,
equipped for every good work.
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,
who will judge the living and the dead,
and by his appearing and his kingly power:
proclaim the word;
be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient;
convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.
Gospel
Lk 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?"
The Amalekites mentioned in today’s First
Reading are a fierce tribe from the vicinity of Kadesh (Gen 14:7; Num 13:29;
14:25). Moses defeats them by stretching out over them the rod he used to defeat
Pharaoh. Yahweh fights for
In the Second Reading, Paul urges Timothy to “stand fast” in the faith he received and to oppose false teachers so as not to be led astray. There is an important note on the importance of Scripture as true instruction but only if read in the context of the Christian faith. Through this statement, Paul assures us that all Scripture is inspired by God. Therefore, the Jewish Scriptures (the Old Testament) are also part of the Christian Bible and should not be taken lightly or dispensed with as heretics like Marcion insisted.
Today’s Gospel reading places great emphasis on the importance of persistent prayer and is very similar to the story of the inopportune friend who wakes his neighbor at midnight (see Lk 11:5-8). The purpose of the story is to encourage and comfort the disciples in their wait for the coming of the Son of Man. The judge from the story follows neither God’s Law nor civil Law and is considered very unscrupulous. Under Jewish Law found in Deut 24:17-22, the widow should receive priority before the judge because of her helplessness. The judges failure to act in her favor may point to his disregard towards the Law or just plain laziness. Regardless, he finally gives in to the widow’s persistence and rules in her favor. Jesus then places the judge’s insensitivity and disregard for others against God’s care for his elect. If an unjust judge will act because of persistence, how much more will God act out of love? However, we must follow the example of the widow who did not give in and persisted in prayer.
Prayer as a spiritual experience has its beginning in Sacred Scripture, which is the fountain of all spiritual life. Through the Sacred Scriptures we begin to know God, his love and his work throughout history and we can begin to intimate with him – God reveals himself to us. Through Scripture we begin to dialogue with God, which is the sense of lectio divina where we can reflect, meditate, and contemplate the mystery of God in a more prolonged manner. But prayer can take on a variety of forms that range from thanksgiving probably the highest form of prayer and in which the Mass is the most perfect prayer of thanksgiving to petition the most common form of prayer where we ask God for what we and others need; adoration, which involves a deep love and an awareness of God presence and our dependence on him. It is an attitude, taken before God's majesty and usually in silence, to reparation, where through sorrow and self-effacement, we seek forgiveness. Regardless of how we pray, the important thing is why we pray and the reason should always be to enter into a more intimate relationship with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Perseverance in prayer may sound simple enough but it is perhaps one of the most difficult things to accomplish. In fact, I dare say that perseverance in prayer is what separates the saints from the rest of us. You see, despite their fears and doubts, those whom we call saints continued in their prayer life. Prayer for these men and women was as important to them as the very air they breathed. We must come to understand that prayer is always a dialogue with God and never a monologue from ourselves. Monologues are best left to late night television hosts who seek laughter as a response. Prayer needs to involve God. When we pray we must try to enter into the mystery of the divine – it must be a give and take. Prayer then, is an experience of our communion with God, our dialogue between the divine and the human.
All
too often many of us will become discouraged because we feel that God is not
listening or will not answer our prayer. But do we ever stop to listen to what
God has to say? It’s the same thing that happens when we hold a conversation
with another person. Oftentimes we are planning our response as the other person
is still trying to convey their ideas to us – we stop listening because we are
too concerned about what we have to say. Our conversation (our dialogue with the
other) breaks down and the message we are trying to convey to each other is
lost. We fail to penetrate into the mystery of the other’s thoughts and needs.
We become loose heart because we misunderstand and are misunderstood. It is the
same with prayer although it is we alone who misunderstand. It amazes me how
quickly some will loose heart (and faith) in Christ because of an inadequate
prayer life.
New American Bible; United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; Childs, B. S., “The Book of Exodus”; Hyatt, J. P., “Exodus”; Barrett, C. K. “The Pastoral Epistles”; Hanson, A. T. “The Pastoral Epistles”; Fitzmyer, J. A., “TheGospel According to Luke”; LaVerdiere, E., “Luke”; Maddox, R., “The Purpose of Luke-Acts”; Brown, Raymond E., S.S., “Introduction to the New Testament”; Brown, Fitzmyer, and Murphy (ed.) “The New Jerome Biblical Commentary".
Deacon Lazaro J. Ulloa