Chapter Chaplain's Homily Reflection - PRAY ALWAYS AND DO NOT LOSE HEART

PRAY ALWAYS AND DO NOT LOSE HEART
Life is one of battles. To live is to be engaged in a daily battle. We do engage in the battle of life not only physically but also mentally. Just as each day has its troubles, so does the battle facing us. Often, we respond to these battles with anger, frustration, fear, or flight. At other times, we become lazy, weary, tired, and lose hope. Experiences of this kind can cause the weary believer to lose heart and cease all efforts to survive. When this happens, it reveals a profound ignorance of life's true nature and a lack of faith. Louis Evely, writing in the 20th century, said that fidelity is "being faithful to what we have seen in the light when times of darkness come."
Moses, in the first reading, tells us that the right response to the battle of life is prayer.
The widow tells us that determination and persistence are the right responses to life's challenges. The greatness of the widow in the Gospel parable lies in her refusal to accept the oppressive and abusive situation in which she found herself until justice is won. As this widow is concerned, there is no hopeless situation.
As seen in these two instances, prayer is the weapon with which one fights the battles of life. It believes that human effort is limited and needs a superpower to fight life's challenges. In other words, it takes divine power to make up for what our human power lacks. Just as Moses supported Joshua and the army to achieve victory by keeping his hands raised in prayer against the Amalekites, Jesus gives us his prayer support by interceding for us incessantly at the right hand of God (Heb 4:14).
So, instead of yielding to our human inadequacy, God wants us to call upon Him in times of trouble (Psalm 50:15); to call upon him against the storms of life (Mk 6:34), and to ask him to deliver us from every evil (Matt 6:13). When we go to him and ask for his intervention, we are fighting our problems with God. We do not fight alone in our warfare prayer; Jesus fights with us. It is impressive how the ups and downs on the battlefield depended on the ups and downs in Moses' prayer.
Our need for prayer may call for perseverance as Jesus teaches about the parable. It is important to note that the point of the parable is not that God gets tired of listening and gives you what you ask, as the corrupt Judge did to the widow. The point of the story is not God's experience but our own experience. Some of us pray when it is convenient, but persistent prayer is not a convenient prayer. We persevere in prayer to tell God that we sincerely trust in divine benevolence and love, but not to bribe God with details or wear him down so that he answers us.
As a matter of fact, persistent prayer is rooted in hope. Hope is the belief in possibilities beyond possibilities that are beyond possibilities. Hope trusts that God will accomplish our petitions in ways and times beyond our knowing. Such hope allows us to profess in the possibilities beyond possibilities, namely, that the waters of Baptism forgive sins, that life does not end in death, and that the world to come will far exceed any splendor we have known.
So, today, Jesus is calling us to adopt the persistent spirit of Moses and the widow in prayer and match up our campaign against injustice and abuse of human life with persistent prayer. We may not see the effect of our prayer or even of the actions of our community to right the wrongs that we see in our time, but our faith, prayer, and actions are God at work in our world. Gathering in prayer, continuing in prayer even when we feel alone or discouraged, and taking actions to assure that justice is done for the weak and powerless are all signs that the Son of Man will find faith among us when he comes. This is more reason why we should not grow weary. Let us, therefore, ask God today to make us strong in our faith, unwavering in our hope, and persistent in our prayer.

Chaplain

Arrowhead Desert Valley Chapter