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: ‘GIVE A JUST DECISION IN MY FAVOUR AGAINST MY ADVERSARY’.

LUKE 18:1-8

We have all met, in one aspect of life or another, the persistent widow in the parable of the unjust judge. In today’s world she’s the parent who has battled school administrators to reinstate her daughter who was expelled, to give her another chance. She’s like the husband who has repeatedly confronted representatives in the health-insurance company over their corporate interpretation of his wife’s medical insurance policy and she is the same companion that you have been visiting ongoing for the past 3 years because Centrelink can’t seem to adequately assist her in order to get her and her family back on their feet. The parable about the widow and the unjust judge is a confusing one and becomes more so as we read on.

It’s a parable about the need to not lose heart and explores the link between the quality of our prayer and the deepness of our faith. The widow is scuffling for a fight and the judge proclaims himself to be a godless man who cares about nobody.

Neither characters are presented as role models for us to aspire too. This parable isn’t suggesting that we need to be pestering God the way the widow pesters the judge. It’s really not about God at all, rather, it’s about us and our hearts and what moves us to act. It’s not a parable about who God is and how God operates in the world. It’s about who we are and how we might nourish our spirituality through how we live our lives. The parable begins: “Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart” (Luke 18:1) and ends with: “And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth” (Luke 18:8)?

If we look at this parable through our own eyes, we might ask ourselves this question; ‘has there been times when I have asked myself why I persist in doing what I do?’ When we persist with something, something happens to us. We get a better sense of who we are and a clearer sense of the God to whom we know guides us. We might ask ourselves why we persist in praying. Again, when we pray we get a better sense of where God is guiding us.

There are times when we might feel that our prayers just bounce off God’s wall of silence. There are times when we know that what we are praying for is a matter of justice for people and we ask ourselves why God does not seem to be listening. We might find some consolation in telling ourselves that prayer, like God, is another mystery.

Perhaps the most consoling thought out of all this is a frequent reminder from the Psalms that we have God for our keeper, a God who neither slumbers nor sleeps, a God whose persistence in chasing after us never slackens or ceases. Perhaps the widow and God do have something in common after all.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

• What is it that keeps you giving your time to the St Vincent de Paul Society?
• How do you share this with others?

From: Firewood for the soul, vol. 1, A Reflexion Book for the Whole Vincentian Family
St. Vincent de Paul Society, Queensland, Australia.
Text by: Samantha Hill.