Jesus told his disciples a parable about the need to pray constantly and never lose heart.
Today’s Gospel offers us a strong lesson about prayer, especially the prayer of petition for what we want, or need. Don’t be discouraged! Don’t lose faith! Don’t give up! The Lord wants to be asked; he hears; he responds; he is generous in giving.
The ancient Israelite Psalmist wonderfully supplies words for the urgent cries we all sometimes want to make to God. Let me just cite a verse that’s extremely familiar, since with it we begin every Hour of our Divine Office. O God take heed and save me; O Lord make haste to help me (Ps 69/70 [= 39/40:13-17]). We make these words our own; we use them repeatedly, because they are so direct, so simple, and we find them to be powerful, and efficacious. The brief Psalm which begins with this verse ends in this way: Thou seest me helpless and destitute: my God, help me. Thou art my champion and deliverer: Lord, do not delay thy coming. The Psalm that follows carries on: Rescue me, O God, from the power of the wicked, from the grasp of lawlessness and oppression; thou, my God and Master, the hope and confidence of my youth (Ps 70/71:4). Elsewhere the Psalmist considers the wicked rich who oppress him: Look at those sinners! he tells God. See how they prosper in the world! (Ps 72/73:12). Yet, for all his distress, he never loses his confidence, his trust in God. Every night at Compline we sing of this trust, which endures even amid the most extreme affliction. At the end of Psalm 90/91 the Lord himself addresses the one praying: When he calls upon me I will listen; in affliction I am at his side, to bring him to safety and honour. Length of days he shall have to content him, and find in me deliverance (vv. 15-16, 1948 Knox translation).
Jesus very consciously stood within this Israelite tradition. Yet also, of course, he brought something entirely new. Through the mystery of the Incarnation, Jesus gave final proof that God is with us. Jesus, who is Himself God’s justice, as well as God’s wisdom, and God’s merciful redemption (cf. 1 Cor 1:30), identifies himself precisely with the poor, with the victims of injustice, with the oppressed. I wonder if he was thinking of anyone in particular when he drew his picture of the unjust Judge? One rather obvious candidate would be the contemporary ruler of Palestine, Pontius Pilate. Pilate certainly had no fear of God, nor respect for man; though also we know he was quite weak, and habitually gave judgement according to which side put most pressure on him.
St. Luke records for us how Jesus prayed, facing judgement at the hands of this man. Father, if you are willing, remove this chalice from me; nevertheless not my will but yours be done... And being in an agony he prayed yet more earnestly; his sweat like drops of blood falling to the ground (22:42,44). Of course the prayer of Jesus was superabundantly answered in the victorious triumph of the third day. But St. Luke insists repeatedly on the reason for the apparently delayed answer to the prayer of Jesus. It was necessary, he says, for Christ to suffer, and so to enter into his glory (24:26,46; cf. also e.g. 12:50; 18:31, Acts 3:18 etc.). If it was necessary for Christ, then sometimes too it’s necessary for us. Yes, we know that God will always vindicate his elect; but we look to see this vindication according to the pattern of Christ’s death and resurrection.
We who are Christians have the strongest possible grounds for confidence in God; stronger than those available to the Old Testament Psalmist. But our sufferings will by no means necessarily be less than his. What a sign of the times it is, that two Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church have recently found themselves hauled before Judges who have contempt alike for God, and for justice, and for truth! It seems now that eminent Prelates are like the widows of ancient times: highly vulnerable to unscrupulous oppression, with no one ready to defend them! We can read in Cardinal Pell’s Prison Diaries how severely his faith was tested, especially when his High Court Appeal failed. But we also read there how, in solitary confinement in his high security prison, his faith was purified, and strengthened, and deepened.
When St. Antony of Egypt had endured terrible temptations, apparently without any help, he was driven to ask the Lord: “Where were you?” To which the Lord replied: “I was there: but I wanted to see how you fight!” Similarly in the fourteenth century, St. Catherine of Siena put exactly the same question. To her the Lord responded: “I was there, in your heart, all the time.” So in all circumstances we Christians can boldly exclaim with St. Paul: in everything God works for good with those who love him... And: the sufferings of this present life are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us (Rm 8:28,18).
For all that, sheer perseverance in prayer can be very difficult, especially when our prayer seems unanswered. Today’s first reading offers us an image of that, when Moses on the Mountain had to keep his hands raised in prayer while Joshua fought with Amalec on the plain below. Moses found he couldn’t do it. So he was given help, and he availed himself of that. We should follow his example! What do Aaron and Hur represent, as they held up the arms of Moses? Surely they stand for the fellowship and support and example and encouragement and sacraments and ministry of the Church, and of our fellow Christians? St. Gregory the Great suggests further that they could represent God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Why? Because all our prayer is made to the Father through the Son, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. With such assistance as that, who could ever fail?!
Let me end now with a little mention of the Holy Rosary. A great aspect of this privileged form of prayer is that it roots us so firmly in the mysteries of Jesus; keeps us focussed on him; expresses and sums up our faith in him. And it does so, always, through the Blessed Virgin his Mother. On the model of Aaron and Hur, Our Lady sustains our prayer with her own, if ever we should grow weary, or (God forbid) falter in faith. Like her divine Son, Mary is always with us, always hears us. In her immaculate goodness she is the diametric opposite of the unjust Judge of the parable. So, through our rosary prayer, we ask Our Lady for both small things and great. In her we have great confidence that all at last will be well; and that all will at last be for our good, and for God’s greater glory.