Luke 18: 1-8
Then Jesus told the disciples a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.
He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’”
And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
“Not Yet”
Former president Jimmy Carter continued teaching Sunday School in his native Plains, Georgia, until his death, a practice he maintained for his whole adult life.
Famously, he was asked once whether God hears. He assured his questioner that God always hears our prayers.
God also answers our prayers, he said, but “sometimes, of course, God’s answer is ‘no.’” Experience has taught me that sometimes God’s answer to our prayers may sometimes also be “not yet.”
My maternal uncle and godfather ceased his Catholic practice shortly after I was baptized. My maternal grandparents prayed a rosary every evening that he would resume it, but they died without seeing it. Still, some years later, it happened. Their prayers were answered.
Jesus’ parable in today’s Gospel reading teaches us that part of faith is perseverance in prayer. If we know we are praying according to God’s will, we need to keep praying. God’s answer to our prayer may well be “not yet.”
—Fr. Bob Hagan, SJ, is a member of a community of senior Jesuits at Saint Ignatius Hall in Black Jack, Missouri. He gives spiritual direction, mostly online; gives sacramental care to the lay Catholics in the adjacent retirement community; writes occasional reflections for Jesuit Prayer; posts various daily items and a longer weekly reflection on the Sunday Mass readings on his Facebook site at Bob Hagan SJ; and drives fellow Jesuits who no longer drive wherever they want to go.
Prayer
Lord, tireless guardian of your people, always ready to hear the cries of your chosen ones, teach us to rely, day and night, on your care.
Support our prayer, lest we grow weary.
Impel us to seek your enduring justice and your ever-present help.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever.
— ICEL Opening Prayer for the Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
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Pray with the monthly prayer intentions of the pope.