A Reflection for Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Find today’s readings here.
I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.
Today’s psalm tells us, “Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.” Blessed are those who do not only adhere to the law of the Lord, but delight in it, meditating on it day and night. The psalm contrasts those with such deeply-rooted faith with the wicked, who are like “the chaff which the wind drives away,” wilted and malnourished. The faithful, on the other hand, are like evergreen trees planted near running water. Grounded in hope in the Lord, their faith can withstand a little breeze.
A quick glance at today’s headlines will remind you that sustaining such hope is easier said than done. Injustice abounds: Millions are starving, war rages on in Ukraine and ignites in the Holy Land, climate change threatens life on this planet, the church itself faces scandal and abuse. A measured desire for a better world is one thing, but the call for joyful hope is a high bar in our time.
In today’s reading from the Book of Malachi, the Israelites look around at an unjust world much like ours and conclude that there must be little point in serving God. They see a world where evildoers seem never to get their comeuppance—rather, they prosper through their misdeeds. It’s a classic question of theodicy: How are we to believe in the existence of a good God in a world with so much evil? Why should we serve such a God?
Jesus reminds us that we just have to ring the doorbell. Keep ringing it. Get a little annoying, and trust that God will answer.
The Lord doesn’t respond to this charge; he just listens attentively for those who revere him. God does not promise justice in this world, but says, “the day is coming, blazing like an oven,” that God will eradicate evil at its roots and protect those who fear his name. But what are we to do today? How are we to look at this world—the suffering of so many, the few who profit off of it—with joyful hope?
Jesus responds in today’s Gospel: Be a little annoying about it.
He doesn’t say it in those terms exactly, but he engages his disciples in a thought experiment. Jesus tells them to imagine themselves going to a friend’s house in the dead of night to ask for three loaves of bread to feed a guest. But if I could offer an editorial note to our Lord and Savior, it’s more compelling from the other perspective: It’s midnight, and your friend rings the doorbell. How rude. They’re asking for bread to feed a late-arriving visitor. You call to him, “It’s too late! My kids are asleep! Stop ringing the bell!” But he is incessant, knocking and ringing the bell and calling your name, so you peel yourself out of bed and grab whatever bread you have just so he’ll shut up. If even you, a sinner, would do this, wouldn’t God?
That’s the power of persistence, says Jesus. In a biblical context, “persistence” translates not as tenacity or determination, but as “lack of propriety” or “shamelessness.” We are to be shameless in our prayer, just like the friend who won’t stop ringing the bell.
Especially in moments when our faith is meager and our relationship with God feels tenuous at best, we should relentlessly ask God for hope. Hope doesn’t come from us; it is a theological virtue from God to make us better than we are. So even as the world seems bleak, when it feels hard to delight in God’s law and it feels like serving God is in vain, Jesus reminds us that we just have to ring the doorbell. Keep ringing it. Get a little annoying, and trust that God will answer.
