Title: TWENTY NINETH SUNDAY YEAR C

IT IS  WORLD MISSION SUNDAY  -- CALLING TO PRAYER

How many of us claim to pray all the time? I believe all of us. What do we mean when we say we pray? Do we mean, We Praise God! We Thank God! Is our prayer Intercessory or Petition? Are we Praying Privately or Publicly? On our Own and for ourselves or in the company of others and for others? What has our prayer to do with  the Public Worship of the Church which we call Liturgy? What makes us Pray? When do we pray? What is the relationship between the Word of God (Scripture) and our Prayer? St. Benedict the Abbot,  Made "Ora et labora" the rule of his order. How do we balance work and prayer in our lives? Enough questions. Take time to find the answers.

The United States Catholic Catechism for Adults, has devoted Part IV to prayer. It is good to take time to read and do the exercises provided. One Sentence in the document will catch your attention for sure. "Pray in order to believe, believe in order to Pray".

 Prayer is the conscious, reflective expression of our Faith. Thus just as Faith is a persevering trust in God in the face of all odds, no matter what, so too prayer is persevering trust in God in the face of all odd no mater what. This is exactily what the readings today are teaching us. Moses lifts up his hands in prayer at a time of war. As he keeps on they win. As he grows weary and lets his praying self fall, they lose the battle. In the Gospel the Widow is persistently seeking her Justice till she gets it. Paul in the second reading urgues us to keep on proclaiming the Word of God whether it is convenient or inconvenient. It is "Keep on". Prayer then is not routine. It is a conscious decision. It requires a certain displine.

But why do we pray? Why do we pester God with persistent prayer? God knows our needs. We do not have to tell God what we need! We do not have to keep badgering God until God meets our needs. 

I think this is where most of us miss the point. We think that our Prayer will change God's plan or will awaken him as if he was asleep. So we find people using a lot of words and even shout loud use Loudspeakers etc. Jesus in Mt. 6:7  says "when you pray do not babble ...... they think by using many words they will make themselves heard....."  In prayer we acknowledge that God is already on our side "I am with you till the end of time". So by prayer we are rather affecting ourselves. It is a struggle to change ourselves so that we are always on God's side. In prayer we seek God's will. We look for what God wants of us not what we want from God. This is why praying the Scriptures is sine qua non. Scripture reveals to us God and how we can relate to him and his creation.  Scripture describes our History and religious heritage as a People of God. It provides us with the language and theology of Prayer. Scripture gives is both the content and style of Prayer.

Prayer moves us persistently and perseveringly into action. In  letter of James we read that "Faith without action is dead" James 2:16, 24  and so is Prayer which is an act of Faith. So if we truly pray, we can rightly say that our good actions are God's response to our Prayer. In other words, we can not pray for the spread of the Good News without being missionaries ourselves. Hence todays (World mission Sunday) call to take an active role in the Mission of Christ and his Church. We can not pray for good and Just Political Leadership without voting or we can not pray for peace without actually being Peacemakers. We can not pray for forgiveness without actually forgiving (We pray this in the Our Father) and you can keep on and on.

In the book of the Prophet Habakkuk which we read two Sundays ago the prophet complained that God seemed to be silent to his requests. Sometimes that is our experience. We want God to give us everything we ask. It has to be said that if God granted each individual or even groups of people everything asked for, we could be in big trouble.  Jesus had promised that God will always give good things to those who ask him. The example of Solomon asking for Wisdom in his leadership is one and in todays Gospel the Widow asking for Justice is another. What are the good things that God will give. God will grant those things and situations which bring us closer to him, those things that help us to know, love and serve him better. God will give us those things which will help us reach a deeper understanding of his teaching or say what will help us be better channels of his love to others. So realy we should pray that God's will and our will be completely one.  

              One last word. It is possible that when we read todays Gospel we compare ourselves to the  widow and we compare God to the judge. It seems that is what Jesus is expressing. But looking at our world and taking into consideration our salvation history. Isn't the reverse true? I think God is the Widow and we are the Judge. Sometimes we do not fear God or any human being. This why some persons found and some still hold it their right to enslave others, discriminate others, and do all sorts of evil against others. God sent prophets and eventually his only son to plead with the human race to give God His Justice. Have we given Him? His Justice was to hang on the cross!! How many persistently refuse to listen to the cries of the poor all around?

Brothers and Sisters, If today we hear his voice, let us not harden our hearts. God is persistenly refusing to accept as final our "No" to Love. God will persist until we render a just judgement, that is, until we let the goodness out. Until we learn to Love as Christ loved. But remember this is the year 2007 A.D. How long do we want him to presist?

Let us take the Challenge today to be Missionaries to ourselves and to Others as we continue to celebrate our Faith and Roots in Prayer and Service.

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