Sunday, October 20, 201329th Sunday in
Ordinary Time
First Reading: Ex 17:8-13
Second Reading:
2 Tim 3:14–4:2
Gospel Reading: Lk 18:1-8
Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should pray continually and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor people. In the same town was a widow who kept coming to him, saying: ‘Defend my rights against my opponent.’ For a time he refused, but finally he thought: ‘Even though I neither fear God nor care about people, this widow bothers me so much I will see that she gets justice; then she will stop coming and wearing me out.”And Jesus explained, “Listen to what the evil judge says. Will God not do justice for his chosen ones who cry to him day and night even if he delays in answering them? I tell you, he will speedily do them justice. Yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life Experience)
What is left of the Jerusalem Temple is the lower part of its original wall now known as the “Wailing Wall”. Here Jews ritualize their sorrow by pressing their foreheads against the wall. I stood before that wall twice in two visits to the Holy Land. In one of these two visits I cried while pressing my forehead against the wall because I felt that like the Jews I too have not been grateful enough to the Lord for the many gifts I have received in life. Suddenly a Jew approached me and said, “I am collecting some dollars for the crying wall.”
“How much do I have to pay?” I asked. “It depends on how many minutes you have been praying here”, the Jew replied in broken English. Honestly I remembered the joke about an idiot who was fined by a corrupt policeman for counting electric posts at the plaza. According to the joke the idiot paid for twenty posts and jeered after the policeman had left because he had actually counted 50. Should I lie about how many minutes I had been standing against that wall and pay the corresponding penalty?
God asks us to be persistent in prayer. I couldn’t persist praying before that Wailing Wall because of that self-proclaimed collector.
He also appeared violent and my instinct told me he could harm me any time. For a brief moment I was locked in deep thought as I asked myself this question: what if prayer had a price tag?” If prayer had a price tag only the rich could afford to pray as often as God’s children should. Thank God, prayer is for free. Sadly, people do not pray as often as they should. They pray only when pinned to the wall. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website:www.frdan.org.
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