Prayer as resistance and persistence

Prayer, as petition or worship, is practiced in as many forms as the human imagination allows. This Sunday’s readings demonstrate the role of resistance and persistence at the core of the experience we call prayer.

This Sunday’s first reading comes from a section in Exodus in which the people of Israel continue their wandering through the desert. An unexpected enemy, the Amalekites, attacked the Hebrew people. This enemy represented one more opponent who tried to break the spirit of Moses and his people. This battle becomes a strange example of partnership, vulnerability and an expression of communal prayer. As long as Moses kept his hands raised, Israel had the advantage. This gesture provides a symbol of petition to God, requesting a favorable outcome in the face of assured defeat. Moses had three companions with him. Aaron and Hur supported the prophet’s feeble hands as he tried to sustain the staff of God. Meanwhile, Joshua led Israel to overtake Amalek. It took the persistence of four individuals to join in an act of reverence that resulted in a victory. Prayer was a communal effort.

It appears that within the Gospel of Luke there are several examples of prayer, but rarely does Luke explain its form, shape and purpose. Instead, what Luke provides are examples of people engaging in prayer. One such example is the Angel Gabriel responding to Zachariah as he prayed, as well as the “whole assembly of the people” standing outside the Temple sanctuary in prayer (Lk 1:10). Near the end of the Gospel, Jesus offered two prayers while on the cross, one for his executioners and the other that his own spirit might return to the Father (Lk 23:34-46). Jesus also taught the disciples how to pray when he gave them his own prayer to the Father (Lk 11:1-2). 

Luke speaks of persistence and resistence in prayer in this Sunday’s Gospel passage when he illustrates prayer through the parable of the persistent widow. The widow fiercely resists being ignored or being given an unjust sentence. The fact that she is a widow was not arbitrary. Jesus understood that she represented one of three groups in Scripture that have a claim to divine justice, along with the orphan and the stranger. The dishonest judge was the antithesis of a virtuous person in the Jewish community, someone “who neither feared God nor respected any human being” (Lk 18:2). Her insistence on justice brought together traditions of both resistance and persistence in prayer. Through them, Jesus teaches his disciples even today how to pray.