St Peter on the Waters, Yankton Window 2004

 

November 12, 2005

Lk 18:1-8
Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said, “There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, ‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’ For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, ‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.’” The Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them?
I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
There is a strength in persistance. The message is to stay with God. Continue to pray. Continue to petition. Continue to follow. All will be resolved if the path is steadfast and the prayer is constant to God. God will answer us in our need and persistance. Even those who have no belief in God will have compassion and help us when they see that we are going to continue to perservere in our quest. Faith requires a steadfast readiness to stay the course to continue in the depths of the greatest need and challenge. It is a matter of clinging to the rock in the greatest storms that threaten to pull us from the rock of faith into the storm tossed seas and yet for all the meaning and everything that is within us we cling to the rock. We are saved by God's mercy, compassion and love. There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God.