THE TEXT BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPTION OF THE VIDEO COMMENTARY BY FR. FERNANDO ARMELLINI

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A good Sunday to all.

Sometimes, in our lives, everything goes well; family relations are friendly, things go well with neighbors, with co-workers, but there are times when we also shed many tears. It happens when we are confronted with evil, betrayal, lies, and injustice, and we wonder how to behave in these moments. Where do we draw strength to live them in the light of the Gospel; and not to let ourselves be guided by what impulses immediately suggest to us. We not only weep when we are personally touched by injustice, but we are also sensitive to the pain of our brothers when their rights are violated. And therefore, we are indignant when we see the exploitation of the poor, the oppression of the weak and defenseless.

Indignation is a sign of love. It means that we are interested in justice; and Jesus was also indignant. The Bible reminds us that many times God gets angry. Of course, this is an anthropomorphism, but his anger tells us that he is not indifferent to what happens to his sons and daughters, and it is a sign that he is passionately involved in his love for us. What is the danger we run in these moments of discouragement? That of losing control of our anger. As God and Jesus turn anger and indignation into interventions of love, we easily become aggressive, and instead of healing evil, we add more evil. What to do to manage our anger well? Jesus gives us a clue.

Let us listen:

“At that time, Jesus told them a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming angry.”

You may have noticed that the translation you heard is different from what you ordinarily find in the Bible, where it says that Jesus told a parable to teach them that it is necessary to pray always without getting weary. It would seem to be an invitation to pray a lot and not to stop reciting prayers. The translation you have heard says, instead, ‘to pray always without becoming angry.’ The Greek verb used is ἐνκακεῖν – enkakein, which means to become angry. We could paraphrase it like this: ‘if in the face of injustice, you stop praying, you will get angry and end up misbehaving.’

The parable, as we shall see, presents a situation of injustice. It does not speak of prayer; let us not deceive ourselves because the central theme of today’s passage is the request for justice. We will hear this term four times. Prayer is introduced as an indispensable therapy not to become hardened in the face of injustice, especially when one feels impotent and is forced to endure, without being able to react, except by doing evil to the one who does evil to us.

The parable we will listen to is narrated only by Luke. Why is this evangelist more interested than the others in preserving it? There is a reason; Luke lives in Asia Minor among Christian communities that are passing through a tough time. We find the situation presented very clearly in the book of Revelation, where it is said that the Christians did not worship the statue of the beast. The beast was the emperor Domitian. Notice that the author of Revelation calls ‘beast’ the mighty one in office, the ruler of the world. Since they did not worship the statue of the beast, the Christians had to endure abuses; they could not claim their rights, they were discriminated against at work; if they needed to open a business, they did not receive a license.

The community of Rome received news that the brethren of faith in Asia Minor were suffering, and the community of Rome wrote, in the name of Peter, a wonderful and touching letter in which he says: “Beloved, do not be surprised that a trial by fire is occurring among you, as if something strange were happening to you. But rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice exultantly. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let no one among you be made to suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as an intriguer” (1 Pe 4:12-15).

What is the danger that these Christians of Asia Minor run? That if they do not pray, they risk anger, to give themselves to the temptation to react by hurting those who persecute them; to react to evil with evil, to injury with injury; and they even risk blaming God for letting things happen instead of intervening and doing justice. Some, in fact, and even many at some point, abandoned the faith and returned to pagan life. It is in this context that Luke feels that his communities need enlightenment.

He needs to tell them: ‘Pray and pray always.’ This is a recommendation that is repeated several times in the New Testament; for example, in chapter 5 of the First Letter to the Thessalonians, it says: “See that no one returns evil for evil.” And immediately after, it says: “Pray without ceasing.” This is the weapon to defend against the danger of misbehaving: Pray. Also, in the Letter to the Romans, chapter 12, Paul writes: “Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer.” If you are afflicted, it is time to pray.

Let us now listen to the parable:

“There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, ‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’ For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, ‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.’”

The first character that Jesus puts in the scene in the parable is a judge, whose job should be to protect the widow’s life, the weak and defenseless. All the rulers of the Ancient East were determined to present themselves as a judge defender of the weakest in society, of the orphans and widows. The Pharaohs of Egypt, when they made their proclamations at the beginning of their reign, they never failed to promise that they would defend the orphans,widows and the poor. At the beginning of the very famous Code of Hammurabi, the great ruler introduces himself by saying, ‘I Hammurabi have been called by name by the gods to do justice in the land, to annihilate the wicked, that the strong may not oppress the weak.’

Let us also remember that Psalm 72 is the presentation of the ideal ruler of Israel and says: “That he may defend the oppressed among the people, save the children of the poor and crush the oppressor. That abundance may flourish in his days, great bounty, till the moon be no more.” The judge of the parable is an evil one, without God, who has other interests than administering justice and taking care of the weak. The description that Jesus makes of this character is so realistic that one could think that it refers to a concrete case.

What was happening in Israel beyond all the proclamations and ideals? This situation is described by the prophets of the eighth century B.C. Isaiah begins his mission, and in the first chapter of his book he writes about the society in which he finds himself: “The rulers are criminals, accomplices of thieves; they do nothing but covet gifts; they seek only bribes, they do not do justice to the orphan, the widow’s cause does not interest them.” Later the same prophet Isaiah, in chapter 10: “Judges make wicked decrees, they deny justice to the wretched, they defraud the right of the poor, making widows their prey, and defraud the fatherless.” It is about inheritance; when it was to be divided, they took advantage of the widows and the frailty of the orphans. This is what was happening.

Who is this judge? Who does he represent? It is clear that we all understand that he is talking about God; a judge must intervene, but to understand who this judge is, we must first identify the widow. “There was in the same town a widow,” and we know that widows, together with the orphans and foreigners, constituted the category of those who had no possibility of asserting their rights; they were without protection. The orphans had no parents; the widow had no husband, and the foreigners had no embassies. Who protected these weaker people? Not the judges. Psalm 68 says who protected these more vulnerable people; it was not the judges. Psalm 68 says, “Father of fatherless, defender of widows, that is God.”

What was Jesus’ situation in his time? He says it himself: “Beware of the scribes who like to go about in long robes, receive greetings in the marketplaces, the first seats in the synagogues, and devour widows’ houses.” What must have happened to the widow in the parable? Perhaps she had been cheated in a transfer of inheritance or she had been the victim of some deception; someone had made her work and then had not paid her… we don’t know,but certainly, she had suffered an injustice, and nobody listened to her. Who is this person? It is crucial to identify her because Jesus is inviting his communities to understand who this widow is who asks for justice.  

In Jesus’ time, widows did not go to the judges; it was the men who went to the judges;the widow had no husband, but it is impossible that she did not have a brother, a cousin, or a friend. Women could not go to the judge. Why does Jesus speak of a widow crying to the judge for justice? Who is this widow? Let us study the Bible and understand to whom Jesus and then Luke refers in his Gospel. If we leaf through the Bible, we will immediately understand who the widow is. When Israel is oppressed, humiliated, suffers injustice, and cannot react, she is called ‘widow Israel.’ There is no husband to defend her; she is like the widows, oppressed and humiliated. The beginning of the book of Lamentations says: “The first of the nations is left a widow.” It is Jerusalem; it is a widow.

It is clear who is referred to in the parable and who Luke wants them to refer to. The widow is no longer Israel; Luke now says, ‘it is you, it is our communities, this helpless widow who cries out and asks the judge for justice.’ And the judge is God.

Let us try to identify this judge well. The parable continues with a monologue of this magistrate who says, ‘at some point, I must solve this case, not because I have realized that my behavior is wrong, but simply because I am tired, annoyed, by this widow’s insistence.’The Greek verb used is ὑπωπιάζῃ – hipopiase, which means, ‘she beats me, gives me low blows and conditions me, does me wrong, damages my reputation; it is only because of this that I have to solve this case.’ Who does this widow scream at, who are the Christian communities of Luke’s time? The readers of the Gospel understand this very well: It is the God who does not move, who seems to do nothing, who appears to remain impassive and not interested in these communities, and then the danger they run is getting angry.

Who is this God that these communities address? It is not the true God. The God they are addressing is the God who should intervene to bring about justice through miracles, through wonders, otherwise what can we do if he does not intervene as we expect? The problem is that this God does not exist; we have created him, and we still believe in that God. In fact, when we find ourselves in those situations and we invoke God, we will wait for him to intervene. He does not intervene with wonders, but we must continue praying. That is, to remain in tune with his thoughts without expecting prodigious interventions that will not happen.

The communities in Luke’s time expected an intervention of God that would do justice in their own way. No, He does not intervene in our history as we would want. He intervenes as He does. The important thing is to be prepared to grasp his plans and when the opportunity to collaborate presents itself in the birth of a new world, we will be able to do what He expects from us. What happens then when you pray? Luke is recommending to his communities: ‘Don’t be angry, don’t expect wonders from the God you have in mind. But keep praying, so you don’t get angry and err in your behavior.’ The one who prays remains in constant contact with God’s thoughts, feelings, and plans. Then you see things as He sees them.

Prayer keeps you alert to the moment when conditions are created that allow things to change. Recall the famous chapter 5 of the book of Revelation, when the Seer bursts into tears because he sees the injustice and does not understand what sense it makes and why God does not intervene. And this Seer of Revelation is invited to go up and look at things from above; then he sees them as God sees them. This is what prayer does. It makes us look up and makes us see the painful situation that we are living in how He sees it and what sense it makes. If we do not pray, we will not understand anything, and we will handle thingsaccording to our impulses, we will end up deviating; we hurt ourselves and others. This is prayer as a therapy to avoid making mistakes in these situations. If you do not persist in prayer besides being irritated, you run a great risk.

Let’s listen to what Jesus tells us now:

“The Lord said, ‘Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? 8 I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’”

The Lord is the one who is speaking now, and when in Luke’s Gospel it says ‘the Lord,’ it means the Risen One. Luke is saying to his communities that suffer persecution and to us today, when we meet the Lord in situations where we suffer injustice: ‘Listen to what the Risen One says to you; “Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night?” What a beautiful expression that is used to address us today and the Christians in Luke’s community. We are his chosen ones, that is, those who have allowed themselves to be convinced by the proposal of the Gospel and, therefore, can no longer react as the pagans would react to injustice. And this is the answer: “I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily.”

The best translation of the Greek expression ἐν τάχει – in tahéi is ‘speedily,’ or better yet, he will bring justice suddenly, when you least expect it, You may not have foreseen that, but it will bring justice. You would like that God get justice in a certain way, no; He will certainly do it suddenly when you do not expect it. That is why you must always keep yourself in prayer, in dialogue with Him, in listening to His word because prayer keeps you in the proper disposition to take advantage of the moment in which God puts in front of you opportunities to start a new world. Then, He will make them wait ‘for a long time.’

The Greek expression καὶ μακροθυμεῖ ἐπ’ αὐτοῖς – kai makrothimei ep autois, I would translate it thus: ‘even if I make them wait a long time.’ Keep in mind that waiting may take a long time, but He will do justice. Trust in what the Risen One tells you. Distrust and lack of faith before the long exaltation of the manifestation of the kingdom of God may be presenteven in believers, and this is the danger: to lose hope, to let down one’s arms and return to pagan life saying that ‘Jesus’ was a good dreamer.’ No, trust. The only antidote to hopelessness is prayer. Be united to the thought of God.

The last sentence of the Risen One, “But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Someone has interpreted this by saying, ‘who knows if in the end there will still be some believers on earth.’ This is not the sense of what Jesus is saying at the conclusion of the parable. He is saying that God will undoubtedly intervene to do justice, and you must remain prepared by keeping united to Him in prayer, for he may come and find you unprepared.

I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week.