29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Luke 18:1-8

For those who watch the Olympics, one of the so-called “blue ribbon” or glamour events is the 100-metre dash. It is a race where most of the time it will be over in about 10 seconds. However, equally important is the Marathon. The Marathon is a battle of endurance and perseverance. An athlete will be battling for more than two-and-a-half hours experiencing fatigue, exhaustion and dehydration while running the course, which is more than 42 kilometres. The reward though, is great as sometimes they include the awarding ceremony of the Marathon in the Closing Ceremony.

The readings for today tell us of the need for patience and perseverance. In the first reading, Amelek waged war against Israel, and while the battle was going on, Moses was on the top of the hill with his hands raised. When his hands were raised Joshua and his army were winning the battle. When Moses’ hands were down because he was tired, Amelek was gaining the upper hand. So Aaron and Hur got Moses to sit on a big rock and raise his hands for hours until the battle ended by sunset. While in the gospel, we have the story of the widow and dishonest judge. The dishonest judge continues to withhold a good judgment from the widow. The widow then continues to pester the judge until she gets what she wanted.

Widows during the time of Christ were very vulnerable because women didn’t work, so they didn’t have any source of income. They depended on their husbands or sons for their living. If a widow had no son, she would have to depend on her other male relatives for sustenance or she would spend the rest of her life begging. So any judgment that would go her way in order to get something was very important. It may be that her late husband had bequeathed some properties for her but someone had contested it and the judge was withholding a favourable decision to the widow. Because the judge “neither fear God nor respect any human being”, he was making it hard for the widow to get what was truly hers. However, because of persistence of the widow, she would end up getting what she wanted.

Sadly, we now live in a world where everything is “instant”. While speed has done a lot of good for all of us especially with regards to communication, it leads us to lesser faith in God because we even want our prayers to be answered immediately. Even when our prayers are granted, we don’t have time to say thanks and appreciate how God loves us.

The gospel tells us to remain faithful and persevere in prayer. One time, I was reading my Facebook page and I saw a friend of mine posted a saying. It said: “God doesn’t say NO to our prayers, He either say ‘Yes’, ‘At the right time’ or ‘I have a better idea for you’.” Jesus wanted us not to be discouraged if it seems what we are praying for is taking some time. God will never be slow especially to those who are in need. These things though need faith and trust. That’s why the gospel passage for today ends with: “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

This weekend we also celebrate “Mission Sunday”. While we believe that we all are by the virtue of our baptism are on a mission, we emphasise this week all those priests, religious and lay missionaries who have dedicated themselves to move out of their country of origin to proclaim the Word of God.

With this we continue to pray and support them in their mission, while we also remind ourselves of our own mission to preach the Word of God wherever we are through our words and example. May we this week continue to persevere and have faith in our God and also remind ourselves to support our missionaries and also to do our part for we are all missionaries.