OBSERVING HOW PREVALENT evil
exists in the world, its power sometimes overwhelming, philosophers of old used
to ask whether this is the best of all possible worlds. But those who experience evil do not merely
look at the present and offer an explanation; rather, they look toward the future
and ask whether there is any hope that we will ultimately triumph over it. For example, after years of praying that the
problems of violence and war in the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Eastern
Africa, Afghanistan, Southern Mindanao
and other hot spots be solved, is there any guarantee that an era of peace will
finally dawn for the poor in these places?
In a history of exploitation and oppression, will the poor ever get a
fairer deal from a society in the hands of the moneyed and the powerful? In a society in which efforts to obtain
greater justice for the majority meet vigorous opposition, is there hope that
the cause of the poor will ever be vindicated?
These questions
appear contemporary, but they make us understand the background of today’s gospel. As in other synoptic gospels, Luke portrays
the Kingdom of God as an experience of a community in which people are freed
from hunger, thirst, persecution, injustice, poverty and other evils, and enjoy
the blessings of justice, love and peace.
This summarizes the central message of Jesus. It seems, though, that after years of
practicing their faith in Jesus, that faith of the Lukan Christians was being
challenged by the hostile environment in which they lived. Luke’s believing community experienced
persecution, injustice and violence from those who did not share its
faith. Understandably enough, the
members raised question that affected their faith in the context of the adverse
situation: when is the Kingdom of God coming so that the poor will come into
their own (Luke 17:20-21)? When will
Christ return so that Israel will be reconstituted and the poor Christians will
be rewarded (Luke 17:22-37)? When will
the poor believers finally obtain real justice on this earth (Luke 18:1-8)?
When there is no
glimmer of dawn in sight, it is easy for the poor members of the Christian
community, who have everything but the positive experience in life, to lose
heart. This is especially so when people
observe that the overwhelming forces of evil seem to make headway, despite all
efforts to ward them off, and when every move toward obtaining deliverance from
an oppressive situation seems to end in disappointment. But the Gospel today (Luke 18:1-8) has a word
for them: Christians who find themselves in that or similar situation should
not lose heart (Luke 18:1). To bring
home this point, Luke preserved for us the parable of unjust judge. The story characterizes the judge as
unsympathetic, with no regard for what either God or man said about him—which
explains his attitude toward the widow.
The judge delayed in his decision.
Some suggested that the widow was a plaintiff in a case she brought to
court against a wealthy opponent, and the judge did not speed up the case in
order not to offend the defendant. Others,
however, in keeping with the character of the judge, surmise that the judge
refused to give an immediate decision in the hope that the widow could raise
the sufficient bribe! But these
suggestions are not essential to the story.
For central to the parable is the widow.
And in the normal circumstances at the time of Jesus, widows were poor,
marginal, not influential, and were economically deprived. They were part of the déclassé in the
Israelite society, and being powerless, they leaned on God for protection. The widow, in other words, symbolizes the
poor in the community of Luke and in our Christian communities who look on God
to vindicate their cause.
Powerless and
marginal though she might be, yet the widow in the parable succeeded in
obtaining justice from the corrupt judge through relentless persistence. But if she so got on the nerves of the judge
that he was forced to vindicate her, how much more would God vindicate his
faithful people, if they only pray persistently, even though he seems to delay
(Luke 18:7). This is the message that
Luke tries to convey. In other words,
the point of the parable is that, even though they find themselves in a
situation in which hope for a better future seems unobtainable, Christians are
not to be discouraged or give up. On the
contrary, as followers of Jesus, they are to be persistent in their prayer,
trusting that God will act and vindicate his cause and the cause of the
Christian community. The Kingdom of God
will come, and if one is not vindicated at the moment, he will certainly be
vindicated with the advent of the parousia, and justice will surely be served.
Such exhortation
is relevant, because in the face of opposition to all efforts to obtain
justice, even time can erode enthusiasm and faithfulness. Constant suffering and oppression can destroy
hope, and give the impression that God is really asleep. Which recalls the experience of the Psalmist:
as the people of Israel were being despoiled, God remained silent before their
real pain, even though they were not conscious of any sin against the covenant:
“Yet for your sake we are being slain all day, we are looked upon a sheep to be
slaughtered. Awake! Why are you asleep, O Lord? Arise!
Cast us not off forever! Why do
you hide your face, forgetting our woe and our oppression? For our souls are bowed down to the dust, our
bodies are pressed to the earth” (Ps 44:23-26).
But at the same
time, this serves to correct an impression on the way God answers our
needs. Too often, when one sees on
television big prayer rallies in parks and auditoriums, one often wonders
whether the participants’ understanding of these prayer rallies makes
sense. For what is often portrayed is
that, one who has accepted Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior easily obtains
answers for the petitions he makes. All
he has to do is to raise his wallet and money will come in, or raise his
passport and he will find employment abroad, or hold high his umbrella and
graces will flow. But if the Gospel has
anything to teach us, it is that one does not easily obtain the favor he asks,
that justice is not always served, that peace is not easily given. There is a need to knock too often, to pray
persistently, to wait for long, to suffer in silence, and to stand in prayer,
even when praying seems meaningless and useless. A Christian may not easily obtain the favor
he asks, but he can always take comfort in the thought that he is not totally
helpless before God, and is entirely dependent on him, and that God will, in
his own, time, answer his prayer, even though not always in the form that he
wants or expects.*
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