Meditation for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time C: “Persevere in faith and prayer” – Vatican News

First lecture: Ex 17, 8-13

Psalm: Ps 120 (121), 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8

Second reading: 2 Tim 3, 14 – 4, 2

gospel: Lk 18, 1-8

Dear brothers and sisters,

On this twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, the word of God invites us to meditate on faith and prayer. The two, faith and prayer, must always go together. The extract from the Gospel according to Saint Luke presents to us as a model of persevering prayer a widow who never ceases to ask the judge of the city to do her justice. It is said of this judge that he did not respect God and made fun of men. Yet the widow, knowing full well that the judge she has to deal with is a difficult man, has not given up her fight for justice. She is strongly driven by a solid faith in man, in his ability to change, which transcends the clichés in which the judge was locked up.

Dear brothers and sisters, nothing can resist persevering prayer, not even the difficult situations that we go through and which are for us what the merciless judge is for the widow. Despite and beyond everything, let nothing shake our faith in a happy exit from the events that torment us.

Our prayer must be carried and supported by a great faith in the positive change of man and the world, and above all, it is a faith in the infinite goodness and mercy of God. If the reckless judge managed to do justice to the widow who harassed him, how much more our loving God, who does not treat us according to our sins and does not punish us according to our trespasses, hears our prayers!

However, we must accompany our prayer with action. God expects our commitment like that of the widow who got up and went to speak to the judge. We, too, must get up, pray and work so that God will hear our prayers and make the work of our hands fruitful.

This is what the first reading, taken from the book of Exodus, invites us to do. As the people of Israel fight the Amalekites, Moses sustains them in prayer, hands raised, on top of the hill. The support Moses receives from Aaron and Hur as his hands weaken shows us that we need to support each other in prayer. This is the real “union of prayer”, as we usually say. Union of prayer in community, in family, in work group… We all need to support each other by this union of heart and mind.

The second reading, from the second letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to Timothy, gives us another means by which we Christians must remain united: the reading and meditation of the sacred texts. The Holy Scriptures are our compass, our source of wisdom and faith in Jesus Christ. May the grace of the Lord help us to always make his Word the light of our steps and the lamp of our paths.

Amen!