Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost – October 16th – Year C
Gospel Lectionary Text
Luke 18:1-8
18:1 Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.
18:2 He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people.
18:3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, 'Grant me justice against my opponent.'
18:4 For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, 'Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone,
18:5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'"
18:6 And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says.
18:7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them?
18:8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
THE HUMAN BECOMING: A COUNTER-INTUITIVE JOURNEY TO GOD. (WEEKLY SMALL GROUP LITURGY)
Word from Below Reflections
This Widow
By Lina Thompson |
As I’ve read today’s passage, I’ve been wracking my brain with this question: Have I ever had to persist in my prayers to God? Has there ever been anything I have desired so much that I have continually petitioned God like the widow in today’s text?
The Joy of All Desiring
By Kris Rocke |
We don’t know the specifics of her case, though I like to imagine her as the Rosa Parks of her community. What we know for sure is that she ultimately wears out the unjust judge with her demands. He grants her request, if only to get some rest. Unfortunately, this describes the experience of prayer...
Faith from Below
By Lina Thompson |
This is a familiar parable Jesus uses to teach us about the nature of prayer. The widow shows us what it looks like to persist in prayer: to keep praying, believing and acting like God will answer our prayers because God is just and merciful. Even though it is familiar, this parable has always left…
Not Even Abraham
By Kris Rocke |
This week’s text is the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man lives a life of plenty, while Lazarus lay at the threshold of his gate “covered in sores” suffering the indignities of wretched poverty. “He longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table” (v. 21). The…
Understanding the Bible anew through the Mimetic Theory of René Girard.
Weekly Homily by James Alison