Sunday the 19th of October 2025 - The Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Exodus 17:8-13/ Ps 121(120)/ 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2/ Luke 18:1-8

Too often throughout history and still today God is invoked to take one side or another in disputes and wars. The first reading for today appears on the face of it to be one such occasion. When Moses kept his hands raised in prayer his side prevailed, when he grew tired and lowered his hands the enemy took the advantage. This is not an account of how God can be called upon to take sides but a lesson in the perseverance of prayer. The example of the warring armies is given because it is one that humanity understood in that time and would, sadly, still understand today. The second reading tells us that all scripture is breathed out by God and can be used for ‘teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness’,  so that we can be properly equipped to live good Christian lives. Even the ancient passages of the Old Testament can be as relevant to us today as they were in the time they were established.

Perseverance in prayer is important; we must keep our hands raised in prayer if we are to overcome the enemy of evil gripping our world today. Perseverance in prayer can become tiresome and feel pointless sometimes. We might need to find a comfortable position to maintain our prayer and may need the support of others to keep it going. This is the message we see in the first reading, God will be there to fight with us against the evil rampaging around our world if we maintain our contact with him through prayer. If we tire of prayer, we let our guard down and the evils of the world may overwhelm us. We do not pray alone, whenever we pray we join a vast community offering unceasing prayer to God, supporting each other, holding each other’s hands up in prayer as Aaron, and Hur did for Moses. The Mass we attend each week is a persistent prayer being offered continually day by day around the world. Jesus is the answer to all our prayers, and he comes to us again and again through the Mass, keeping us strong in belief, supporting our hands as we raise them to heaven.

The psalmist understood the need to keep focussed on looking towards God for assistance. We lift up our eyes to where we know God comes from, our help will come from the Lord. God will keep us from stumbling on our way, never sleeping as he maintains his guard over us. The Lord will guard us from evil now and forever. God comes to us in the Eucharist, the perfect act of prayer, and as the priest raises the host at Mass we raise up our eyes knowing that is where God comes to us from, and we make the profession of saint Thomas saying, my Lord, and my God.

In the gospel passage we find Jesus teaching the need for perseverance in prayer. The unjust judge is worn down by the persistence of the widow who has been wronged. In the end he grants justice to the widow not because it is his responsibility to do so but simply to stop the woman bothering him. God is far from an unjust judge so how much more is he going to hear the cries of his people who call to him for help? Jesus assures us that God will hear our prayers and will give justice speedily. However this passage contains one of the comments from Jesus that I have always found quite concerning. Jesus looks into the future and says,. “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” What is Jesus seeing when he makes this comment? Will a time come when all faith in God has disappeared from the world? While there remain dedicated people who are willing and able to persevere in prayer faith will remain and even grow stronger and there will indeed be faith on earth when Jesus returns. It is up to us to keep our hands raised towards God constantly calling on him to fight with us against those who seek to undermine our faith.

Those of us who are parents know the persistence of a child when they want something. It is this persistence that God is encouraging us to use with him, us his children asking God, Our Father, for our needs with the insistence and perseverance of a child. God, the ultimate parent, will not fail to accede to the persistent demands of us his children. As with any parent the response might not always be exactly what the child demands but it will be what the child needs. Our prayers are heard by God and answered by him as a loving parent. Not necessarily in the way we might want but in the way that is best for us and our needs. We live in a world that demands instant gratification. We have come to expect immediate results, instant answers, quick fixes to everything. Prayer does not respond like that. Prayer is a relationship, and relationships take time and effort to develop requiring faithfulness and perseverance. They demand that we be there day after day even if we do not see immediate results.

Perseverance in prayer strengthens our faith enabling us to see beyond a particular need or desire giving us a perspective of being part of a larger plan, the plan God has for the salvation of all. We can sometimes reduce our prayer life simply to a constant stream of asks. We need to develop our prayer life into a conversation with God including all the aspects that should be present in prayer. We praise God, we seek forgiveness from God, we offer repentance to God, we give thanks to God, and, after all this, we petition God asking for our needs to be met. It is through prayer that we express our faith, in our prayers of petition, when we ask for what we need from God, we are reminded of our dependency on God’s mercy.

We can answer the question Jesus asks, will he find faith here when he returns? Today let us remember that we must be people of persistent prayer, holding our hands up to God. Let us be a community of prayer holding each other’s hands up when we become worn down and weary. Let us never stop crying out to our God who hears us and is ready to walk with us through all our challenges and difficulties, let Jesus find us praying persistently now and when he returns.

God Bless Brendan.