Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

This Sunday's Gospel begins with an unusual statement from the author of Luke's Gospel telling us exactly what the forthcoming parable is about.

"Jesus told his disciples a parable about the need to pray continually and never lose heart."

But I'm struggling with this.

The first reading is a bloodthirsty account of the battle between the people of God and the army of Amalek. As it is told, the success of God's people depends completely on Moses remaining in a posture of prayer, arms raised to God. When he lowers his arms, the battle turns against them. But when Moses' companions eventually come to hold his arms up for him, they prevail - their enemies are cut down before them.

Can this really be what God wants? An ageing patriarch keeping his hands in the air for things to go their way?

Then in the Gospel we hear the story of the widow that comes again and again to the merciless judge, also seeking to overcome an enemy. In the end the judge is not moved by justice, but by her persistence in pestering him. He acts for his own good, not for hers. He just wants to be left alone.

A literal reading of both stories would have us believe that this is how prayer works. That if we nag God for long enough, or put up a performance that cannot be ignored, we will get our way.

But the coda to the story challenges this view. God is not like the unjust judge, Jesus tells us. God already knows what we want, and what we need, and what is right.

So why pray at all? Because prayer is not about changing God, but about being formed ourselves. We've all heard the truism that the people we choose to spend time with affect the person we become. And through time spent in conversation with God we have the opportunity to come to understand God's will for us.

I still have faith in a God that intervenes in human history - after all, that's what the incarnation of Jesus was. And I still pray for those close to me that are suffering their own trials. But on the whole, I know that prayer changes my heart, not God's mind. And in that respect what Luke says about praying always, and not losing heart, begins to ring true for me.

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