19 October 2025 - 29th Sunday "C
Ex 17:8-13; 2 Tim 3:14-4:2; Lk 18:1-8
Homily
We have two important characters in this parable: on the one hand, a judge who does not fear God and has no regard for anyone; on the other hand, a widow who is weak, but who is convinced of her rights and is determined to assert them. In the end, the judge gives the widow what she asks for, simply so that she will stop bothering him.
We don't have to look hard to find the meaning of this parable, because Luke tells us what it is about: "Jesus told a parable to show his disciples that they should always pray without becoming discouraged."
In the first reading we have another example of constant and peaceful prayer, that of Moses. In addition to this constancy, Moses and the widow in the Gospel have something else in common. They are both on the side of the weak and oppressed. The widow because she is one of them, Moses because he belongs to an oppressed people. And God always listens to the prayer of these little ones.
It is possible that in this Gospel scene Jesus was referring to a concrete situation known to his listeners; but we do not know this, and all we know about this widow is what Jesus tells us in this parable. Of Moses we know more. He was a Hebrew, raised in the house of the Pharaoh of Egypt. He could have become an important person in the government of Egypt. But one day he returned to his own people and saw how they were treated. In a spontaneous act of indignation he defended one of his brothers, and this act set off a chain of events that transformed his whole life. He had to flee to the desert to escape the wrath of Pharaoh. And there, in the desert, he met God. There, in the solitude of the desert, the most ordinary thing became a burning question, the most ordinary bush became a sign of God's presence. Moses was given the task of leading to freedom a people who still yearned for the security of its captivity. Moses remained faithful to his people; and when God, disappointed with them, wanted to exterminate them and give Moses a new nation, Moses said, "No. If you get rid of them, you will not be able to do anything. If you get rid of them, get rid of me too!”
This radical solidarity of Moses with his people explains today's reading, where we have this beautiful image of Moses praying on the mountain with his hands raised, while the people fought on the plain. Victory depended on Moses' perseverance in prayer.
This story has traditionally been used and manipulated as the basis for the distinction between two forms of vocation in the Church: the active life and the contemplative life. There is obviously some truth in this interpretation. But it would be dangerous to force this distinction, because, on the one hand, those who are involved in the transformation of the world might think that they are exempt from the obligation to pray, since there are nuns and monks who do it for them; and, on the other hand, monks and nuns might try to justify a lack of concern for the needs of their brothers and sisters in the world by seeing themselves as important people who have as their only duty to pray for others.
Such an interpretation overlooks an important reality: that Christ has come. He went down into battle with all humanity and even died in that battle. But he rose again and is now always present at the right hand of the Father interceding for us. He is the new Moses, not us. As for us, the so-called "active" as well as the so-called "contemplative", we are all engaged in the same struggle against the forces of evil, until the full victory of Christ is realized in us and through us. The first lesson to be learned from the story of Moses is a call to solidarity with the weak and oppressed.
There is only one battle, in which we all find ourselves. The selfishness and hatred that lead to the oppression of social classes by other social classes, to the oppression and domination of nations by other nations, is the same selfishness and hatred that we all carry as a constant strain and wound on our hearts. Some people are called to heal these wounds of humanity by devoting their whole lives to working actively for the removal of social injustices; others are called to do so primarily by struggling in their own hearts against the same power of evil, allowing the kingdom of heaven to be realized in human beings through the conversion of their hearts.
We are all engaged in the same eschatological struggle. Let us never forget our solidarity with those who, in different vocations and different ways of life, work to realize the victory already won by Christ in the concrete existence of humanity. We are all united because our common victory comes from the new Moses, who stands with his hands outstretched at the right hand of the Father. He invites us to join him in prayer.
Armand VEILLEUX