Sunday Meditation: The Unrighteous Judge

The Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time in Year C brings us to another teaching of Jesus.  Today He will teach through another parable the need for persistent prayer.  Three years ago I meditated on the last line https://ashesfromburntroses.blogspot.com/2022/10/sunday-meditation-will-he-find-faith-on.html of Jesus finding faith on earth.  Today I want to focus on the dishonest judge.  Why is Jesus brining up a dishonest judge and why does the judge fear the widow will strike him?  Yes, strike him physically.

 

Here is the Gospel passage.

 

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?"

~Lk 18:1-8

 

Let’s let Fr. Terrance Chartier of the Franciscan Immaculate explain the passage through his homily.

So if the dishonest judge relents through nagging persistence and threat of a punch, how will the Righteous Judge of heaven react through simple prayer? 

 

I’ll let one of my favorites, Fr. Joseph Mary of the Franciscan Capuchins give his pastoral homily. 

Goodness, two Franciscans in one day?  I may receive a call from my Dominican hierarchy…lol.  Just kidding.  Fr. Joseph and Fr. Terrance are among my favorite homilists.

 

Sunday Meditation: "Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says.”

 

Prayer is putting one’s life in the Lord.  Here is one of my favorite John Michael Talbot hymns, “Father I Put My Life in Your Hands.”

 

“In you, O Lord, I take refuge.”