29th. Sunday,
Year (C)
(Exodus
17:8-13; 2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:2; Luke 18:1-8)
As Moses was guiding Israel to the
Promised Land, we heard that Amalek
came and attacked Israel at Rephidim.
Now, it is important that we notice what followed, for Moses
said to Joshua:
Pick men for us, and march out tomorrow to fight against Amalek;
and I shall stand on the hilltop with the staff of God in my hand.
Moses was, as Scripture tells us (Numbers
12:3-4):
A man of great humility, the most humble
man on earth;
and yet, as you heard, he went -- as
leader with the staff of God in his hand -- to intercede for the army of Israel
fighting in battle at his behest:
Whenever Moses raised his hands Israel had
the advantage, and when he lowered his hands the advantage passed to
Amalek.
Ultimately, it was thanks to Moses'
intercession that:
Joshua defeated Amalek and put its people
to the sword.
And so, despite being the most humble of
men, Moses led his people into war believing it to be in accordance with the will
of the Lord, the God of Israel. Now,
Moses was also the holiest of men (Exodus 33:11), and as such we are told that:
The Lord used to speak with Moses face to
face, as one speaks to a friend.
The full significance of this is explained
to us in the following words of the Lord God:
If he were a prophet and nothing more, I
would make Myself known to him in a vision, I would speak with him in a
dream. But My servant Moses is not such
a prophet; of all My house he alone is faithful. With him I speak face to face, openly and not
in riddles. He sees the very form of the
Lord. (Numbers
12:6-8)
Because Moses was thus totally
dedicated to God in holiness and humility, he could not – of himself, for
himself -- be directly involved in the bloody struggle against Amalek taking
place in the valley below him.
Nevertheless, for the sake of God's People, he would share in the
battle, in the manner best suited to his particular vocational calling and
character, that is, by his prayers.
From this we can see that war is not, of
itself evil; but, in our fallen world, it can only become an acceptable weapon
for the People of God when used with an intention and for a purpose acceptable
to God. However, as the centuries have
passed and human society has developed so much, in its wealth (tempting to
pleasure and plenty) and technical ability (tempting to pride and
self-sufficiency), the somewhat simple issues over which wars were fought
formerly have become, politically, much more involved and uncertain, while the
effects of war have become ever more disastrous. Therefore the Christian spirit – note, I am
not speaking of that worldly wisdom and political self-seeking of
non-worshipping unbelievers or active dis-believers -- is now increasingly
inclined to withhold, as far as possible, from the exercise of earthly weapons
of war, and to devote itself more insistently to the God-given weapons
mentioned in the Gospel and second reading.
Timothy was a man totally dedicated to God
in his life, but, as with Moses, that did not mean that he could not, should
not, fight. His ministry was indeed to
be a fight, and the words of St. Paul in the second reading were preparing and
encouraging him to be a fighter in the best Christian sense, for God’s glory,
the well-being of God’s People, and for mankind's salvation:
All Scripture is inspired by God, and is
useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for instruction in
righteousness. Proclaim the word; be
persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand,
encourage, with all patience and teaching.
Worldly weapons of destruction are
readily, almost inevitably, backed by worldly passions, and too often they
result in hatred, violence, and ruthlessness being directed against our fellow
men. St. Paul, on the other hand,
explains that the real Christian fight is against the devil:
We do not wrestle against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness
of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)
Therefore, the Christian must learn to
fight not only against evil in the world around, but also against the evil, the
weakness and the ignorance, ensconced within his own heart and mind; and for
such a campaign -- one that has to be fought throughout life -- only faith and
prayer can enable him to endure and ultimately receive the promised crown:
Take up the armour of God that you will be
able to withstand on the evil day. Stand
fast; fasten on the belt of truth, for a breastplate put on integrity; let the
shoes on your feet be the gospel of peace, to give you firm footing. And with all these, take up the great shield
of faith with which you will be able to quench all the burning arrows of the
evil one. Accept salvation as your
helmet, and the sword which the Spirit gives you, the word of God. Constantly ask God’s help, praying always in
power of the Spirit. (Ephesians 6:13-18.)
In armed conflicts here on earth emotions
arise naturally in the combatants; and being instinctive, they can soon
develop, becoming so powerful and imperious as to be indeed passions: forces we
cannot simply use, but which rather seek to use us and from which we suffer
greatly: impulses and drives blinding and hardening us to such an extent that they
can easily overwhelm our judgement and override our conscience. From indulged and sated passions of that sort
there can arise not only human tragedies and great suffering, but also
retaliatory crimes of blindly revengeful and explicitly vindictive passion,
which serve to spread human misery over an ever longer time and wider field.
The virtue of faith, however, being a
supernatural gift of God which only develops through our deliberate and
persevering faithfulness and humility before God, never becomes an overwhelming
passion; for faith, of its very nature, exercises its power against all that
provokes and promotes passions and their accompanying excesses, that is,
against the multitude of irritations and antagonisms, injuries and vanities,
lusts and longings -- not to mention anxieties and fears -- that can so easily
fill the lives and stir the hearts and minds of men and women today.
Therefore, our Gospel passage ended on a
very sombre note to which we should give at least some thought here:
When the Son of Man comes, will He find
faith on the earth?
Many Christian men and women still lead
lives basically dedicated indeed to God; but being involved in the world and
living partly for worldly ends, their Christian faith can at times be seriously
weakened by the dangers and difficulties they inevitably encounter. There is no doubt that our Western
civilization is that of a post-Christian era, indeed a post-religion era, and
although there still remain remnants of Christian teachings and occasional
examples of Christian attitudes and values -- sometimes publicly acknowledged
and appreciated but, more generally, hidden in the intimate and private
corridors of men’s minds -- these are only rarely able to do anything more than
tug at public heart-strings without moving wills enough to affect public morals
or national politics. Moreover, since
many of our contemporaries have lost all direct contact with the living Church,
our present-day afflictions are largely the result of a catastrophic loss of
trust in God which has developed over many years; and not only have morals
deteriorated in our society, but reason itself, which might seem -- as judged
from our technological advances -- to have been so wonderfully encouraged and
empowered has, in fact, been dreadfully distorted. Originally given as a unique blessing for
mankind to enable him to subdue and appropriate for his own greater good the
powers of nature, and thereby help him to recognize and appreciate something of
the glory of God in the ever more wondrous details of creation, the human
intellect has, however, been increasingly used by many to glorify themselves
whilst seeking to deny any divine power over creation or salutary influence in
human affairs.
Moreover, in the Church herself, false and
hypocritical piety has gradually led many to use devotions and even the very
sacraments themselves wrongly: for, instead of seeking thereby to draw ever
closer to their heavenly Father in a personal relationship of loving trust and
obedience in and with Jesus, they have used them to build up – by a process of
psychological self-abuse -- a personal pseudo-holiness based on things
supposedly done for God but rather inspired by a desire to provide themselves
with a kind of protecting shield against a God Who, having long been Personally
ignored, they now begin to imagine as an ever-more threatening Judge.
And yet,
because humankind was and is made for God, we cannot turn away from Him without
hurting, bruising, and even, perhaps ultimately, upsetting the harmony and shattering
the beauty of our human make-up. The
minds and hearts of many have, indeed, been turned away from God, but still, in
the depths of their human psychology they continue to feel a need to be
justified, to be at one with the Other, which, if not the transcendent God,
must then be society itself.
Consequently,
in difficulties and disputes of whatever sort today the solution of individual
problems and general moral issues is so often sought exclusively at the bar of
public opinion and common practice: whatever is popular must be right and
acceptable. And so we regularly hear
such phrases as: “I’m only doing what lots of others are doing”, while there
are yet others for whom it is sufficient to feel at one with the blind forces
at work in society, with, that is, their own presumed personal fate; and these
will frequently explain and excuse themselves by such words as, ‘There was no
other option open to us; we could not have done otherwise’.
When
the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?
Will He, that
is, find some few still willing to create a silence, a peace, within and
without themselves that they might be able to listen for the Spirit of Him Who
is their Lord and Saviour, wanting to hear and willing to answer His call? And if so, will He find among these any
prepared -- in accordance with His word -- to sacrifice themselves, with Him,
for His purposes, and for the glory of the Father?
To that end we
must remember that Jesus told the parable in today’s Gospel to encourage us to
pray continually and never lose heart.
Just look at
that parable. Can you imagine what a
good film, slap-stick comedy, director could do with it? This criminal justiciar, this unscrupulous
magistrate who, despite moving here and there, is beginning to tear his hair
out because, wherever he goes, he hears that same voice repeating that same
plaint-cum-demand:
Get justice for
me from my adversary; give me protection; avenge me!
Why does Jesus
use a parable which can easily been regarded as a parody? Could it, indeed, be the case that He wanted
His disciples to smile a little at the thought of anyone being able to
seriously conceive a doubt about God’s unfailing attentiveness to our prayers
or question His willingness and power to answer them? Jesus is talking to His disciples, and there
have been some serious and solemn matters under discussion; here, however,
Jesus could be understood to be saying, “Give serious matters serious
attention; but, as for doubts about the usefulness of prayer to God, treat such
imaginations as they deserve: they are laughable for anyone who knows God, as,
indeed, you should know Him by now.”
There Jesus
hints at the tragic comedy being enacted in modern times among those who allow
doubts about God -- most especially with regard to the supremely intimate
relationship of filial prayer -- to arise in their mind and linger in their
heart, not being aware that it is they themselves who are thereby beginning to
lose hold of their end of the bond of faith by taking themselves and their
fears, too seriously.
Joyful
confidence in the Lord is a supremely important part of the armour of a
Christian; and so, People of God, never let any foolish doubts linger at the
back of your mind as regards your prayer before God; for, if sincerely made, it
is unquestionably acceptable to God, and will, most certainly, be heard and
answered by your Father in heaven, for that you have His very own Son’s word:
Will not God
give justice to His elect who cry to Him day and night? Indeed, I tell you, He will give justice to
them speedily.
So, let us once
more imbibe confidence from St. Paul’s personal experience of the truth and
trustworthiness of Jesus’ words:
I am persuaded
that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor
things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created
thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38 - 9:1)
And let us
always remember that God alone is merciful, essentially merciful and true, He
alone knows and bestows divine and definitive mercy, and His chosen ones can at
best administer His
mercy. Their personal goodness may seek
to imitate His mercy; their talk, however, can rightly praise but not affect
it, for it is essentially one with His Goodness and Truth, His Holiness and
Majesty, as aspects of His Being Love.
Divine mercy therefore cannot to be separated from His commands, for His
commands – known to us infallibly through Mother Church’s traditional teaching
-- are always deliberately willed and supreme expressions of His mercy towards
weak and sinful human beings aspiring to walk in the ways of His Son, by His
Spirit, as His children.
