I read about a pastor who ate lunch at a local restaurant. He opened a letter and a twenty-dollar bill fluttered out. He thought, Thanks, I can use that. Outside a man on the sidewalk appeared out of work. The pastor put the twenty back in the envelope and wrote “Persevere!” and handed it to him.
Next day, the pastor was back. The same man handed him a big wad of money. The pastor asked, “What’s this?” The man said, “It's your half of the winnings. Persevere won at the track.” Yes, perseverance paid off.
The word of God takes us back to a defining moment: the Exodus of the Hebrews from their oppressors in ancient Egypt. But in the wilderness, the Hebrews encountered dangers everywhere. They probably struggled for land and water rights. Moses, atop a hill, displays the staff of God, symbol of God’s presence, and extends his hands. As Moses lifts his hands in prayer, the tide turns in favor of the Hebrews.
The message: persevere in prayer because God does hear us, though he may not always answer in the way we would like.
St. Paul emphasizes the significance of the Bible and its importance in our lives. The Bible is the very “breath of God” which empowers us to be faithful disciples of Jesus.
In the Gospel, we have a heartless judge and a persistent widow. Because the widow doesn’t give up in her demand for justice, the judge eventually gives her what is rightfully hers. The parable challenges us to persevere in doing what we can to right wrongs. In fact, persistence often makes the difference between success and failure.
I would like to highlight the Bible as a guide.
There are many Catholic spiritualities: Benedictine, Franciscan, Dominican, Jesuit, Marian, Carmelite, etc. All different responses to the one common Christian call to holiness. The goal, to paraphrase the musical Godspell, is to “see Thee, O Lord, more clearly, love Thee more dearly and follow Thee more nearly, day by day.”
Let me highlight a biblical spirituality. God speaks to us through the inspired word of God, the Bible. We should be ever attentive and responsive to God's word in the liturgy.
God authored the Bible in the sense that it includes what God wants us to know about God, his relationship to the universe, our purpose. But the authors of the Bible were real authors, using languages, images, literary genres, and worldviews in their cultures to communicate religious truths, not scientific theories.
The Bible is a library of books written by dozens of authors, over decades or centuries, using various forms—prose and poetry, fiction and history, narratives and short stories, geneologies and sermons, even humor. Moreover, the parables of Jesus often speak symbolically. Just as we interpret literary genres differently today, so too we must discern the biblical genre to be able to discover more easily the religious truth it is trying to communicate.
The two creation stories communicate that God is our awesome Creator; we came out of nothingness. God is good. We are made in the image of God. Somehow we broke our friendship with God and one another. We often choose our worse over our better selves.
The scriptures point to Jesus as the definitive revelation of God. Everything God wanted to do for us or say to us, God did in Jesus Christ, gloriously alive.
I invite us to read the Bible prayerfully: not to find specific answers to things the biblical authors never thought, but to become the kind of person for our day that Jesus was for his day. The Spirit of God in our global community guides us along the journey to our heavenly dwelling place, in light of new challenges in new generations and evolving cultures. And with the aid of new technology, we can share visual testaments of saints such as Mother Teresa, continuing thr ministry of Jesus Christ with her hands and feet and eyes to the sick and dying.
Let us nourish our life through the Sunday readings. We gather to re-dedicate ourselves to God, to listen to God in the Liturgy and to presence sacramentally and mystically the living Christ in the bread and wine, to become one with Him in Communion, and then to go forth to continue the ministry of Jesus Christ.
Yes, God speaks to us, to remind us of our purpose, and we listen; we speak to God, and he listens. Is there a word or a phrase that God is whispering into our souls? For me, last Sunday, it was gratitude. Today: perseverance.
May God's word transform us so that we will be channels of grace in our homes, workplaces and community, in relationship with God and one another forever.
