“DUE TO THE INSISTENCE OF THIS WIDOW…”
The parable of this Sunday’s gospel that speaks about permanence in prayer must be understood in connection with the coming of the Lord, which is announced as a decisive and sudden event; That is why it is necessary to be alert and pray without interruption because we do not know the day or the hour. Hence, Jesus was referring rather to an attitude and what we could call “the prayer of life itself,” than to a specific prayer that must be repeated over and over again.
The parable fits very well into the situation of those times in which the widow was truly the prototype of an existence in solitude and helplessness, and in which the sinister figure of the corrupt judge abounded.
This widow in the parable has in principle no chance of being heard by that unjust judge, but she insisted until the judge relented, although it was only to get rid of her.
The prayer of God’s elect is a prayer to ask, day and night, for justice. Now, we cannot insistently ask God for justice if we do not fight equally insistently to establish justice among ourselves. Furthermore, a life of prayer is only possible when there is faith; That is why Jesus admonishes us to keep faith until the last day.
The fundamental quality of that widow was her implacable constancy that ignored the silence of that judge, the bitterness of his indifference and the harshness of his masked hostility. Praying is not easy, as if it were a matter of pronouncing a magic formula that smoothes everything out and resolves everything. Prayer is a mysterious adventure that in the Bible has the appearance of a struggle. Therefore, the indispensable quality of prayer is fidelity, even in moments of God’s silence, in times of aridity and darkness.
Related