Lk.18: 1-8
Kristu Jyoti College, Parish Animation Team decided to organize a Youth Retreat: Cristeros 19, for the youngsters of Bangalore archdiocese. Let me share an experience associated with the organization of this retreat. Unfortunately, it fell on the same day as the diocesan inter-parish cultural competitions which reduced the number of the participants for the retreat drastically. Exactly a week before the event, our team leader suggested that we would cancel the retreat because it is not worth to organize this retreat for a few participants, calling preachers all the way from New Delhi. We were quite sure that we may not be able to meet all the financial expenses due to the minimum number of participants. However, I suggested to the team leader that we would not cancel this retreat, God would help us and finally we decided to wait for two more days. I prayed for this intention however, even after two days nothing substantial happened in our favour. I felt discouraged and wanted to tell our leader to go ahead with the proposal to cancel the retreat. Around 10 a.m. We discussed about this but we could not arrive at a consensus; but we were more or less sure that it was not going to happen. That afternoon I got a phone call from our leader sharing with me a surprise news…
He was busy with the filming of the aflame sermons. He got a call from abroad; he cut the call twice and attended the call on the third attempt. It was a call from Bahrain. The person over the phone told him that he came across the poster of this retreat shared by one of the preachers and during his moments of prayer (that is early morning at 5 a.m.) he got a message from God that the ten participants who would participate in this retreat, didn’t have sufficient financial background to pay the admission fee for the retreat. He assured us that he would sponsor ten participants for the retreat. I was happy to hear this nevertheless, I was worried about the number. However, we decided to carry on with the retreat programme as per the schedule. To cut the story short, the last session of the retreat was the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Once the programme started I opened my eyes for a while I saw my companions were bringing extra chairs from outside to accommodate the participants… A retreat that was about to be cancelled because of the fewer participants.
The greatest challenge in our spiritual journey is perseverance in prayer. The challenges grow proportionally with the spiritual growth. In the initial stages of our journey, we might have had certain specific signs or interventions from God. All the same, we all have to face the dark nights of the soul where in we experience a certain dryness. It need not be applicable to all. The intensity varies from person to person and to some people it may be short and to others it could even extend to few years. Spiritual writers testify that it would be a painful experience because the person feels that he/she is completely abandoned by God,an experience similar to Jesus that he had at Gethsemane, on the cross. What is our response when we encounter such a desperate situation in our spiritual journey?
In today’s gospel Jesus presents the parable of the unjust judge and the widow. Jesus teaches us to persevere in our prayer. In all the cultures widows were looked down and considered as bad omen. In this parable we see that this widow goes behind the unjust judge because there is no one to help her. She goes to him knowing about his corrupt background. Despite that she perseveres in her attempt with faith. Her unfailing perseverance forced the unjust judge to act on her behalf and thus offer justice to her. With this parable, Jesus challenges us with regard to our perseverance in prayer.
Every prayer of ours, even the feeblest utterance of our heart is heard by God. Then we may ask why our petitions are not granted? We need to surrender to the mystery dimension behind this delay. However, we need to believe in God’s time, the opportune time for God to intervene in our life. This opportune time we cannot understand or demand from God. Our entire salvation history is based on this opportune time… “At the appointed time God sent his son born of a woman” (Gal.4:4)
Then the next question is: Why we need to continue praying when our prayers are heard? The answer to this question is the person of Jesus. Why did Jesus, the second person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God, pray? Prayer is also a means for communion with God. God always acts in collaboration with us. Prayer transforms people. Sometimes God intervenes in our life through the least expected people, those we may not have seen or known or is from the other end of the world… therefore we need to keep on praying…
Dear friends, you have all the reason to believe that I wrote this reflection based on the faith experience that I had in connection with the retreat that I mentioned in the beginning. All the same, I humbly acknowledge that I prepared this reflection beforehand, almost two weeks before… The experience only confirmed my beliefs. Wishing you beautiful moments in your spiritual sojourn…