C: 29th Sun of OrdTime (20 Oct 2019) - WIDOW'S LAST RESORT (Lk 18:1-8)

A story is told about a cat that has kept on chasing a particular mouse. All day and all night it would hunt and run after the mouse but always with no success. Suddenly, it just quitted and exclaimed to the mouse, “I give up! But what is it in you that I can never outrun you?” The mouse replied, “There is a very big difference between running-for-your-food and running-for-your-life.”

Our gospel today talks about another story of a poor widow—one of many in Luke (cf. Anna in 2:36-38; Widow of Nain in 7:11-17; Widow and her Contribution in 21:1-4)—who was seeking justice for harm done to her. She is described to have continuously bothered a particular judge in her predicament. Because of her annoying persistence, the judge gave in to her request. Lk 18:1 situates its pre-context as “Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.” Indeed, the widow was praised on account of her diligence and determination, and, similarly, God will “grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night” (v. 7).

But why was the widow so persistent as described in the parable? There are three things to remember with regard to widows in the Jewish society of the Greco-Roman times. First is a widow has lost her husband. Jewish wives were normally confined doing household chores and would certainly not be familiar with the influential personalities in their town (cf. Isa 49:21; Jn 4:7). Going to one particular person was, in fact, her only choice since she would not know another aside from him.

Second is a widow is a woman. In a patriarchal society, women were never part of the governing body or hegemony. This reality becomes more pronounced in litigations since their testimonies were never held as comparable to that of men (cf. Sus. 41). In her judicial problem, she would definitely need the help of a male figure to ever have the chance of advancing her cause. Lacking none, she zeroed in with the one she knew.

Third is a widow is normally poor. Having lost her husband nor not even described as having a son to depend on, the widow in our story is most probably poor (cf. Deut 14:28; 26:12; Lk 21:2). Being a woman, she was essentially not allowed to engage in business since women were customarily forbidden, too, to speak openly with men outside their relatives (cf. Jn 4:27). This set-up technically disqualified her from earning money, as she was limited to the grain she would harvest (cf. Ruth 3:6) and to whatever she could gather (cf. 1 Kgs 17:10). How could she ever afford to pay the services of a lawyer? For this reason, she went straight to the judge as her only resort.

In consideration of the three points above, we can say that in our gospel, the widow’s last resort is none other than to go directly to the (male) judge. She had no husband to depend on, she had no other male acquaintances to seek help from, nor did she have enough money to pay the services of a lawyer. Jesus teaches us today that when we pray to God, we should equally possess the same disposition, i.e., believing that God is an all-powerful judge and our last resort in all our predicaments. This widowlike trust and surrender to God does not only show our full confidence in his power but also sets our feet on the ground, reminding us to be always humble at all times. This combination of trust-in-the-Lord and humility-in-oneself is, then, the key to a perfect prayer, which not even God can refuse.

The First Reading illustrates these two virtues well with the two positions of Moses as he prayed (Exo 17:8-13). Accordingly, he needed to keep on raising his hands up in the air (trust-in-the-Lord) and to recognize that his knees were weak to not be in need of a rock to sit on (humility-in-oneself). Good that there were Aaron and Hor to help him with this (v. 12). May we then learn also how to support each one, not only in praying for one another but more importantly in also making others’ prayers a reality for who knows… we may be running only for our food, while they are running for their very dear lives.

- Rex Fortes, CM