A woman of persistence

“When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”  Luke 18:8b

This is a good and interesting question that Jesus poses.  He poses it to each one of us and asks us to answer it in a personal way.  The answer is contingent upon whether or not we each have faith in our hearts.

What is faith?  Hebrews 11:1 describes it this way: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”  In other words, it can be said that faith is a response from each one of us to God speaking in our hearts.  In order to have faith we must first listen to God speak.  We must let Him reveal Himself to us within the depths of our conscience.  And when He does this, we manifest faith by responding to all that He reveals.  We enter into a belief in His Word spoken to us and it is this act of believing that changes us and forms faith within us.

And so at this time the question of Jesus seems very pertinent.  He is asking if there will be faith on this earth when he comes at the end of the world.  We can’t see the future and so are unable to answer the Lord’s question.  What we can do is to make sure that faith is present among us in our time and that we pass it on to our children and grandchildren.  If succeeding generations can continue to do that then the answer to the question of the Lord will be yes. 

There are many challenges to faith in today’s world.  Many Catholics pay lip service to being Catholic but do not really practice their faith.  Other Catholics find the practice of their faith difficult because of the challenges and struggles in their lives

One of the means of renewing our faith is through the strengthening of our contact with the Lord.  We do this through prayer.  And prayer is the subject of today’s gospel.  In his parable Jesus calls upon us to be like the widow who persisted in her demand for a just decision.  He wants us to be persistent in prayer and never grow weary of asking Jesus for what we need, just as the widow never tired of asking the dishonest judge for a decision.    Perseverance in prayer is not always easy, but it will be rewarded.  Jesus is listening to us.  We know that through faith.

I have a couple of images that come to mind when I think about my mom’s persistence in praying for others.  One is today’s gospel.  The other is like when taking a flight somewhere, the flight attendants will explain the safety features of the aircraft.  In case of the loss of cabin pressure, the oxygen masks will drop from the ceiling above you.  You are supposed to put your own mask on first, then help the others around you, especially the small children and elderly.  I know Mom felt like her rosaries and novenas were not necessarily for HER sake, but for those of us who haven’t put our own masks on yet and expressed our love of God and neighbor through the prayers our Blessed Mother has asked us to pray.  After her retirement, you could say her full-time job was her prayer life!  And Mom was very, very busy! I crunched some numbers a few years back and I figured she had said over 1 million prayers on behalf of her family, just from the time of her retirement!  

Faith is not just believing.  It’s believing in what God speaks to us.  It’s the belief in His very Word and in His very Person.  When we do enter into the gift of faith, we grow in a certainty about God and all He says to a radical degree.  That certainty is what God is looking for in our life and will be the answer to His question above.

“When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”