Accessibility Tools

XXIX Sunday of Ordinary Time

XXIX Sunday of Ordinary Time

The arms outstretched and the cry “day and night”.

10/13/2016

Dear brothers and sisters, Fiat!

In the parable of today’s Gospel, Jesus links indissolubly two important themes for the Christian life: the need and insistence of prayer. The importance of praying with insistence seems to be the main theme of the parable of the unjust judge. As he fulfills the constant demands of the widow so the Father will be ready to grant our prayers. We can develop this theme with the important elements that Jesus provides in the same parable. The choice of characters, for example, is significant.

The widow is a person who hadn’t many social protections as today we might call them. The Mosaic law had tried to give some protection for widows and other underprivileged people such as orphans and foreigners. In the Acts of the Apostles, the appointment of deacons arose precisely in relation to the lack of attention towards the widows.

 

Unceasing prayer, lived in faith, but especially with the offering of one’s whole life, wins God. Several times Luisa, in her prayer, was very insistent with Jesus who eventually, almost to the point of exhaustion, gave in to her requests, but everything was offered and lived in the Divine Will

In the passage of August 12, 1927, Luisa presents the experience of how the intercession prayer is powerful, through what Jesus says to her about the manifestation of the Kingdom of the “Fiat”.

 

Luisa’s interior is a continuous speaking before God, and a continuous act. And a speaking ever unceasing before God, wanting the Kingdom of the Divine Fiat, brings with itself the certainty of victory.

So, either Luisa has won or she is about to win. A continuous doing and speaking acquires the nature of a winning power before God, and it is as if God would lose the resisting strength, while the soul acquires the winning strength. An exchange takes place: God is disarmed and the soul is armed with divine weapons, but the Supreme Being is not given to being able to resist.

Does that asking Him continuously for the Kingdom of the Eternal Will seem trivial to us? – going around through the whole Creation, and, over and over again, in all the acts Jesus did in Redemption, as well as in the seas of the acts of love and of sorrow of the Sovereign Queen of Heaven, to ask for the Kingdom of God?

Luisa sought nothing for herself, and she went round and round, asking over and over again that the Divine Will be known, and that It dominate and reign. Not a shadow of what is human enters into this, nor any personal interest; it is the holiest and most divine prayer and act; it is prayer of Heaven, not of the earth, and therefore the purest, the most beautiful, the invincible one, which encloses only the interest of the divine glory.

Until now no one has prayed Jesus with such insistence.

The Virgin Mary prayed Him with such insistence for the sake of Redemption, and She was victorious; but for the Kingdom of the Divine Will – no one until now with such insistence as to conquer a God. Therefore, Luisa’s insistence says much, the very uproaring of all nature says much. In these times, all the elements, uproaring, are bearers of goods, and this is necessary to reorder the Kingdom of the “Fiat”. It is the greatest thing, and it takes the uproaring in order to purify the earth. Therefore, Jesus doesn’t want Luisa to oppress herself too much, but rather she keeps on with her continuous flight, with her insistence, so as to acquire the complete strength to win the Kingdom of the Supreme Fiat.”

 

We might ask ourselves: today, who cries out to the Lord, day and night, one’s sorrow?

Jesus says: You must pray continually. Certainly we, every so often, pray, we say prayers, we think about the Lord. But what does the expression “always to pray and not lose heart” mean ? We find that through the several moments of prayer we learn to love and it’s love that is the true prayer and we can love forever.

 

Today we meditate and deepen the theme of prayer, although it is better to talk little about it and dedicate ourselves to prayer, to give our time and heart for the encounter with the Lord. I would like also ask myself  and each one of you: ” Do I really wish to learn to pray, or do I consider prayer as something boring, useless? Am I ready to make progress in prayer, by planning precise timetables for prayer, by helping myself with supports, by searching for the essential of prayer, the core, that is a true love relationship with the Lord? “

 

If my wish is sincere, “Lord teach me to pray,” if I have this desire, if I am willing to change attitudes, lifestyles, schedules, the Lord will transform my spiritual life and help me. Since, as someone said, “learning to pray is learning to live”; “Prayer is the breath of the soul”; “Prayer is God’s power in our lives, it’s God’s Omnipotence placed in our hands, in our faith.”

Jesus told his disciples this parable, about the need to pray always, without tiring.

 

Moses who prays, standing on top of the hill, becomes the model of constancy in prayer. He is the intercessor. The people is in desperate need of his constant prayer. This let us understand that prayer is the support for action and that the claim to change the world, on our own, is an illusion. A psalm says: ” Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain”.

 

Msgr. Câmara, a tireless apostle of the poor in Brazil, says: “Two hands clasped get much more than two clenched fists.” These are the words of a very active man and they are confirmed by many examples.

Saint Teresa of  Calcutta openly confessed: ” I can do nothing without prayer”! She did a lot, but knew and recognized that everything started from prayer. Prayer requires perseverance and commitment. To Pray well, pray with confidence, pray without ever growing tired: to pray when it gives joy, pray when we find difficult, this is the teaching of Jesus. In this way, we nourish our faith, we welcome the salvation of the Lord.

 

don Marco

Permanent link to this article: https://bookofheaven.org/2016/10/15/xxix-sunday-of-ordinary-time/