October 19: The Day of the Lord / El Día del Señor

When St. Luke wrote his Gospel, the Second Coming of Jesus had been delayed beyond what many in the early Church had expected. In addition, the Church was experiencing persecution from both the leaders of the Jews and the whole Roman Empire. The persecuted early disciples were finding it increasingly difficult to maintain their faith. These realities meant that they would freely hearken back to Jesus’ teaching on prayer and perseverance. Luke 18, 1-8 addresses the issue of faith in difficult times. It reassures the disciples in every age that God is listening to our persistent prayers and will grant us justice and vindicate our faith in the end.

A note of caution on Jesus’ teaching: God is not being likened to, but contrasted with, an unjust judge. God, obviously, is not comparable to the harsh and insensitive judge who needed to be bribed or forced by persistent pleas. Again, Jesus is contrasting God to this unjust judge. Jesus is asking us to persevere in the kind of prayer that opens our hearts and minds to God’s always-available grace. Prayer, after all, does not seek to move God’s heart for what we want, it opens our own hearts and spirits to what God wants for us.

Something to ponder this week: Our prayer has to become like eating and breathing. We have to eat daily, not stock up on food on Monday, and then take the rest of the week off. Similarly, do we take ten deep breaths and say, “Good, that’s over for a while, I won’t have to breathe for a couple of hours?” Of course, not! Are we willing to make prayer a regular, dependable, and much-needed part of every moment of our lives?

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La parábola de la viuda y el juez sin escrúpulos (Lucas 18, 1-8) es, como tantos otros, un relato abierto que puede suscitar en los oyentes diferentes resonancias. Según San Lucas, es una llamada a orar sin desanimarse, pero es también una invitación a confiar que Dios hará justicia a quienes le gritan día y noche. ¿Qué resonancia puede tener hoy en nosotros este relato dramático que nos recuerda a tantas víctimas abandonadas injustamente a su suerte? ¿Seguiremos alimentando nuestras devociones privadas olvidando a quienes viven sufriendo? ¿Continuaremos orando a Dios para ponerlo al servicio de nuestros intereses, sin que nos importen mucho las injusticias que hay en el mundo? ¿Hemos oído la invitación de Jesus a nosotros a “olvidarnos de nosotros” y buscar un mundo más justo para todos?

El punto clave de la enseñanza de Jesús: Si un juez tan mezquino y egoísta termina haciendo justicia a una viuda, Dios, que es un Padre compasivo, atento a los más indefensos, “¿no hará justicia a sus elegidos, que le gritan día y noche?” Dios no es sordo a nuestros gritos. ¡Está permitida la esperanza!