It was a tedious task, but it had to be done. Every summer, we would go through the motions of making large round hay bales, and eventually, in the course of time, we would succeed, and there would be fields full of these large, heavy round bales. Yet, we were not done, because those bales needed to move to a better location. So, we would take out a tractor with forks, and proceed out to the field, and carry the bales off two by two to our hay lot. It took some time, and we couldn’t really do it any faster than the tractor could handle. We just had to go back and forth, and sometimes it would take hours just to do one field. What did all of this take? A little virtue called persistence.
We’ve likely heard this word so many times, and yet, do we understand just how often we need this particular virtue? If you think about it, often it comes into play, not in the things that are particularly easy to do or even very fun in life, but it often becomes rather important when we are dealing with things that take a long time. Perhaps a school or work project. Maybe even building something. Saving up for that new car. Whatever task is at hand, we often need persistence to make it to that end goal, and to attain something we want, and something that we consider essential and important to our lives. Even in the readings and the Gospels today, we are encouraged to this very same thing and essential idea… but why?
The first reading this week comes from the book of Exodus, and tells a “war story” of sorts about the Israelite engagement with the armies of Amalek. Now, war in their time would be very much like what we would expect of ours today, but there was one major difference that appears in the way that the Israelites fight. In the course of this reading, we are told that Moses gives Joshua instruction- go out and engage Amalek in battle. Yet, what happens next is interesting- because Moses stands on the top of a hill with the staff of God in His hand. Moses is not a military leader by any stretch of the imagination- but Joshua is. Yet, what proves to be essential in this battle- and what would be different- is that Moses holds that staff over the battle. The result? If Moses had his hands upstretched- Israel had the upper hand. When he put his hands down, then Amalek and his soldiers did.
This raised a particular predicament, but one that was easily solved- Moses needed to keep his hands raised- yet, how do we make that happen? That is where Aaron and Hur come in- they hold his hands in the upright position, until the battle is finally done, and they have the better of the fight. It is not something done by their own power- but by the power God wields in the hands of Moses!
The second reading continues our slow and sure progress through the second letter of Saint Paul to Timothy. The exhortation remains largely the same in encouraging fidelity from Timothy, but it grows into a particular emphasis. Paul reminds timothy of the need to “remain faithful to what you have learned and believed, because you know from whom you learned it.” In particular, Paul reminds him of the need for holding on to scripture, and thus giving all through it a gift of competency, and the necessary tools to form disciples.
Yet, that is not all that Paul says, because in the second “part” of this reading, He continues to encourage Timothy to proclaim the word, but not in a non-descript way, but to rather be persistent- whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching. What does that mean? Timothy shouldn’t be tied to results, or to whatever is comfortable or convenient. He is encouraged by Paul to stick to the task at hand, no matter what because there needs to be an end result- something must be done! Continue to proclaim the word no matter what. Persist in your proclamation. That is what Paul wants from Timothy in the context of this letter and this exhortation.
Finally we arrive at the Gospel, and right off the bat, we are told exactly what Jesus is doing: giving a parable on the need to pray always without becoming weary. So, what does this story look like exactly? We are told, there is a judge in a certain town who neither feared God, nor respected any human being. Yet, he still had a job to do, and so we hear of this woman who is coming to this judge and asking for a decision. This must have gone on for some time, because we are told that this judge was unwilling for a time, and eventually, he thinks to himself: this widow is bothering me! This is really frustrating! So, he eventually comes to the rationale in his mind: sure, I don’t know God, I don’t respect any other human being, but I will deliver a just decision for her, lest she finally come and strike me in her own fury!
Jesus follows this up with instruction: Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says! God will secure the rights of his chosen ones- the ones who call out to him day and night! Will he be slow to answer them? Not at all! Yet, there is a question at the end… when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?
Will Jesus find faith on earth when he comes again?
There is an underlying understanding of what is going to need to happen to make it to this point! It is going to take the gift of persistence! It is going to take showing up, trying one’s best, and going strong no matter the circumstance and no matter the hardship or the affliction. This widow that is approaching the judge has the gift of persistence, and because of that persistence, even in the face of what may seem to be an impossible situation, she is still able to prevail over that unjust judge that had no faith, and no respect either. Because she kept going, she was granted her request! Now, to be clear, the point of this parable is not to compare God to an unjust judge, but to rather set apart how different He is. If this judge, who might seem to be a bad person in general, responds favorably to the needs of the widow- how much more willing is our Father and our God willing to respond to our needs? So the first thing we should recall from this Gospel- we should persist in prayer! It may not seem that God is always responding exactly in the way we would expect- but we are promised that God does hear and respond to our prayers? Do we believe that? Do we feel that we are going to have faith, even in the moments when it feels God is silent?
Further, we should have persistence even in the moments that we tire out. Notice Moses and how he becomes weary in the course of a battle. This isn’t just a historic battle, but it is actually one that takes place in our hearts and our souls on a day to day basis! Often, we are facing good and evil in our lives, and are watching that very battle play out. Yet, we can grow so tired! We may feel that Amalek and his evil armies are always winning, and so we begin to give up. Perhaps in confession, when we have the same sins come up time and time again in confession, we start to lose hope. Perhaps our arms begin to weary because we feel that we will never conquer these things, as big or as small as they might be. Yet, Moses doesn’t win the battle alone! He has Aaron- one of the priests- there at his side, and it is through that strength that Moses does persist, and make it through! It is not about his own strength, but about letting the strength of God come to Him and help him out in that moment!
Yet, if we simply go at this theme of persistence, things might seem a bit shallow. One could conceivably walk away from this homily and think that someone simply said to persist, so I’ll do it. That would yield a good result, but there is a better way! To find that better way, we need to understand the answer to one simple question: Why should I persist? What is my motivation? What is my end goal? If I go back to my time on the farm- even in picking up those hay bales off the field- it was because I had the image in mind of when every single hay bale was off the field, and when I could finally pull the tractor into the shed, and shut it down! That kept me going and persisting, even into the long hours of the day, and sometimes even of the evening. I persisted because I saw the goal.
Brothers and sisters, if we don’t have that end goal in mind as to what we want to accomplish, then we may not even have that courage to show up at all! That is the reality of what we are being encouraged to consider: we persist because we want to grow in our relationship with God, and we want to help others as well. We don’t give up and we don’t back down! We need to constantly have this before us, and then we will have that courage to persist and to show up- to trust in God and have faith that He will do as He promises, if we but trust and have faith.
That truly is the challenge! Brothers and sisters, we have a God who is so good and generous to us- He wants to give us what we need, to help us out of sin and weakness, and to give us that holiness that we strive for! Yet, He also wants us to have that patience and that persistence to continue to approach and manifest that same faith.
May we truly, through our persistence, come to believe the words of the psalm: Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth? I hope and pray that He does in each of us!
