Weekly Faith Question?

“Grant me justice against my opponent,” said the widow to the unjust judge.

What makes it possible for the widow to persist in seeking justice? After all, she’s just a lowly widow, versus a judge who holds a high office. More, this judge “neither feared God nor had respect for people.” These were long odds, but she kept causing trouble for this judge. What keeps her going?

The gospel says this parable is “about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.” In other words, our inner life and outer life are connected, like a spring and a stream. The spring is the stream’s source. Without it, the stream runs out. It cannot persist.

What “source” or “spring” keeps you going? Not in some dutiful or disengaged autopilot-mode, but fully alive and showing up all the way even when you can’t predict the outcome. Where does this spark come from for you? 

Maybe from many sources. All of them are Christ, who pours out love, life, desire for change and who invites you to keep pouring yourself out too. That’s the flow the widow was in. Prayer is immersing ourselves in the Spring, the Source, the Spark.

Does a stream rebel against the spring, saying, “I don’t need you!” or “I’ll take it from here,” or “I don’t want to be a bother” or “You make me weak, vulnerable”? But humans do, numbing out on everything from food, TV, and drugs to work, Facebook, and religion.

Listen to this parable many times this week. Let this widow make trouble for you. Ask Jesus to make trouble for you too, for the sake of justice and life.

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