The Word Of Peace
Homiletic Reflections On Peacemaking

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

The gospel and readings for today remind me of the story of St. Bernard. St. Bernard was riding on his horse one day, lost in prayer. He met a beggar on the road and engaged in conversation with him.

The beggar asked Bernard what we was doing on the horse as he went along, and Bernard said he was praying.

"But I often have distractions when I pray, the beggar said.

"That's nice, " said Bernard. "I'll give you this horse if you can say an "Our Father" without once being distracted."

"Oh, that's easy, " the beggar said, and he began to pray, "Our Father, who art in heaven; hallowed be thy name..." The beggar paused. "Say, does the saddle come with the horse ?"

Life is filled with distractions that clamor for our attention, often disrupting our quest for a life of prayer and faith. It is quite evident that prayer takes a great deal of persistence to be faithful to its discipline. We hear as much in today's parable. The judge is reluctant to deal with the widow. The hour is late, it is just too inconvenient. But she is persistent and wins a hearing--justice is done. Certainly God is not reluctant, what Jesus is getting at is the need for our persistent in prayer for justice to be done. And this is important in our personal and social lives. Without prayer, the world as it is continues to be fraught with injustice--injustice that breeds violence.

This is the second week in which we hear of the fear of violence because injustice still hold sway over many lives. We know that violence is injustice and injustice is violence. Such injustice breeds the resentment, it is the "seedbed" of terrorism and armed conflict. It is also the seedbed of crime and despair. Or to put it more simply: injustice often creates desperate situations, desperate people and desperate actions aimed at changing the situation.

To address the many challenges of our world prayer is essential ! We are reminded of this in 2 Tim. The Word of God, approached in prayer, reproves, corrects, inspires and trains us to be the Lord's co-workers in the world. Our call to mission in this world is a call to bring the love of God into every region of life--no region an undiscovered country. We do this in light of the promised return of the Lord who will judge the nations. And we know what kind of judgment that will be--"as you did it for the least of these !"

There has been much talk about the new millennium that will be celebrated as a Jubilee Year for the Church. Such a year is a year of debt forgiveness; of justice; of celebrating the beauty and the wonder of creation. It is a time to begin anew. All of this in prayer--in a life of surrender in the Spirit of the crucified and risen Christ, not only in the mind and heart, but in the fullness of our bodily, worldly existence. We are called to prayer in our homes, in the marketplace, in the slums, in the prisons, in the midst of the nuclear terror in the midst of human starvation. Prayer is a yes ! to the Lord who calls us to walk into the midst of the violence and suffering of the world with the Word of God's love. A word made flesh in our concrete actions to bring justice, to work for peace.

This is no easy task. Alone we can get discouraged, feel that no one really "gets it." But we are reminded in Exodus that even Moses needed help--others has to help him pray--as others must help us. That is part of the genius of God who created us to be in community, a community that is persistent in prayer, and wielding the power of God's love in moving to address and heal the pain of the world.

This will take persistence despite discouragement. A dogged determination in faith is the way of the cross and the way of Christian prayer. Apart from the cross prayer is no longer distinctively Christian. It is prayer then, that takes seriously the suffering of the world and suffering of God in our wounded brothers and sisters, and in our wounded planet.

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Uploaded January 14, 2000