The prayer, the unjust judge and the nagging widow

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Father Gabriele
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Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

PRAYER THE UNJUST JUDGE AND THE NESSING WIDOW

 

«Jesus told his disciples a parable about the need to always pray, tirelessly "

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Author:
Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci, o.p.

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Dear brothers and sisters,

The church of the Dominican convent of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, where Father Gabriele was transferred and where he celebrated his first Holy Mass today

On this XXIX Sunday of ordinary time the Holy Gospel offers us a great and precious teaching on prayer [see liturgy of the word WHO]. In many other passages he described the importance of acts of mercy and charity towards God and neighbour. Today the central theme is instead prayer:

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«Jesus told his disciples a parable about the need to always pray, tirelessly "

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An unceasing prayer. Very often in the eyes of the contemporary world prayer is a boring practice, which is to be avoided, because they are old or because they are considered something outdated. On the contrary, prayer is first of all intimacy with God. One being with him in dialogue with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit: three People who listen to us and talk to us. It is not a dialogue for the deaf, as unfortunately often happens today, in communications via WhatsApp, Telegram or even in person. I remember a book from a few years ago, l’Ulisse at James Joyce. One of the protagonists, Molly, a long internal monologue begins. Talk about topics that are also messy with each other. Lying on a bed. Then it answers itself. It turns to Jesus and God. But materially he doesn't listen to them.

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Instead, Jesus came to tell us to open our hearts unceasingly to God, because it is a dialogue that will change your life permanently. Not just life, but every day we entrust ourselves to Him in prayer. Like this, to make it clearer, Jesus tells his followers the parable of the unjust judge and the insistent widow. What the Lord wants to underline is the insistence of the widow, despite the situation of injustice that she lives. At the end of his insistence is granted. So at the end of the parable he says:

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“Listen to what the crooked judge says. And God will not perhaps do justice to his elect, who cry out to him day and night? It will probably make them wait a long time? I tell you he will do them justice promptly. But the Son of Man, when will, find faith on earth?».

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Prayer is then our tenacious action. To entrust ourselves to God in our moments of suffering, in the injustices we live, in our spiritual aridity. Because the Lord knows everything about us and in prayer he continually feeds us with his grace and his gifts of the Holy Spirit. Prayer therefore prepares us to receive other graces and other greater gifts. But as Jesus himself says at the end with a rhetorical question, prayer is what feeds faith. That faith, theological virtue, that the Lord has generated in us and wants to find each day, because faith is falling in love with God. It is the most beautiful love of all.

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The prayer it is therefore that action which allows us to be ever more in love and fervent in charity towards God and our neighbour. In the Catholic tradition there are different types of prayer: the vocal one, the singing, meditation and contemplation. For us Dominicans, contemplative prayer is very important. When you do the temple: contemplation is like becoming a temple, become one with Jesus. So, an entry into the depths of Jesus: a relationship of intimacy in charity and truth.

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We ask the Lord to become more and more believers who pray to God with heart and spirit, so that we can wet our existential deserts with the rain of the tender and deep love of those who have loved us to the end.

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Florence, 15 October 2022

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NOTE

Father Gabriele was transferred from the Roman convent of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva to the Florentine one of Santa Maria Novella, where this Sunday he celebrated his first Holy Mass and preached for the first time.

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