Bible Diary

Daily Reading

Friday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time

LECTIONARY
219

FIRST READING

3 Jn 5-8

Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.

PSALM

PS 112:1-2, 3-4, 5-6

Response: Blessed the man who fears the Lord.

Blessed the man who fears the LORD,
who greatly delights in his commands.
His posterity shall be mighty upon the earth;
the upright generation shall be blessed.

Wealth and riches shall be in his house;
his generosity shall endure forever.
Light shines through the darkness for the upright;
he is gracious and merciful and just.

Well for the man who is gracious and lends,
who conducts his affairs with justice;
He shall never be moved;
the just one shall be in everlasting remembrance.

GOSPEL

Lk 18:1-8

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Daily Reflection

Luke’s Gospel, today, reminds us that God will not abandon His chosen ones, if they remain steadfast and faithful to him. Through the analogy of the persistent widow and the unjust judge, Jesus points out that if the poor widow, who was traditionally powerless in a patriarchal society, could by her persistence move the judge to action, how much more would God respond to the persistent prayer of a community acting in faith.

The Early Church struggled to feel the presence of Christ and remain faithful, especially since they faced severe persecution and deprivation. Luke knows that they need reassurance and shows them how their diligence in faith will be rewarded.

Like the widow, who to onlookers may seem foolish in her demands, we too need to persist even through those periods of darkness when God seems inaccessible. When we persevere in faith, we will surely know the reciprocal love of God.