Perseverance
And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, “Grant me justice against my adversary.” (Luke: 18:3)
We’re never told her name or grievance. She was poor, powerless in a patriarchal society with no social security, public assistance, or legal aid program. By law her husband’s estate, if any, would have passed to their sons or to his oldest brother, not to her. Unemployed and unemployable, among the most vulnerable people in the ancient world, a widow in first century Judea lived a hard life.
We’re also never told she had any particular religious quality that made her stand out as an example of Jewish piety, nothing apparent that would have lead Jesus to choose her as the subject of today’s gospel parable. But what we do know about her is that she was the victim of some unnamed wrongdoing and had a burning desire for justice.
Despite her inability to get a just decision from a dishonest and powerful judge (making this my least favorite biblical parable!), no matter how long or how tearfully she tried, she refused to give up. What did she do instead? She made an insufferable pest of herself, annoying the guy unmercifully, becoming his worst nightmare. Luke gives us no details, but, if you use your imagination, you can see her picketing the courthouse every day from 9 to 5; showing up unannounced at his health club; writing nasty letters about him to the editor of the Jerusalem Chronicle.
How annoying was she? Picture in your mind the local car dealer with that exasperating, grating, tagline who appears in his own T.V. commercials ad nauseam on every channel. No, not Mike Piehler…. Billy Fuccillo, you know, the guy who sneers ….hhhuggggeah, Rochester, hhhugggeah!!!! That annoying!
It’s not that this nameless judge who repeatedly ignored the widow’s pleas was intellectually challenged, no, this guy was ethically challenged... down right corrupt. Irreligious and indifferent doing the right thing, no doubt more interested in getting through the day with a minimum of effort and a maximum of bribes, he was clearly a poster child for 1st century judicial reform.
Finally, however, this scoundrel of a judge, had it with the widow’s bulldog antics and caved in. Not because of a conversion experience, mind you, no, she simply wore him out. Fearing she might become violent towards him, he sheepishly relented and gave her a just decision.
What’s the lesson of this almost comical parable? With some parables you have to stop and think, but not with this one. Luke tells us in the first line … Jesus told his disciples about the necessity to pray always without becoming weary…in other words, the importance of perseverance, not only in prayer, but in the subject of prayer. The widow, after all, wasn’t praying for healing, or lost souls, or spiritual growth. No, she had been wronged and was pleading for justice.
God’s requirement that we act justly toward one another, particularly toward the poor, powerless, and oppressed, is an urgent and recurring theme in Scripture. Justice, justice, you shall pursue. (Deut. 16:20) Time and time again in the Hebrew Bible God sent prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Amos to protest against injustice, urging our ancestors in the faith -- feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, forgive debts, be honest in using standards of weights and measures and be good stewards of creation. “Love God above all else” was their repeated exhortation. And those who did, then as now, responded by loving and acting justly toward others.
The New Testament reinforces and continues this teaching. Standing firmly in the prophetic tradition, Jesus reached out especially to the poor, the sick and suffering like the ten lepers in last week’s gospel. Love one another as I have loved you. In his view, every act of love or indifference toward another was, in actuality, directed toward him. What you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, he said, you do to me.
The widow in today’s gospel understood well that the pursuit of justice often required perseverance and struggle. Another woman twenty centuries later demonstrated those same qualities and gave birth to the American Civil Rights Movement.
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, an African American seamstress, boarded a bus in racially segregated Montgomery, Alabama, her home town. According to the city’s segregation laws, front seats were reserved for white passengers only. Even if there were no white passengers on the bus, African Americans were still not allowed to sit in those seats. If white passengers filled their allotted seats, African American riders, who paid the same fare, had to give up their allotted seats in the rear of the bus. If any disobeyed, they were removed, arrested and fined.
That fateful night Parks was asked to give up her seat to a white passenger. She refused and was arrested. End of story? Not by a long shot, because her refusal to obey that unjust law provided the spark which, following a bus boycott of 380 days, led to the desegregation of Montgomery’s buses, eventually helping bring about the end of legally sanctioned segregation in the United States.
Like the widow wronged because of gender and marital status in the 1st century, Parks was wronged because of race in the 20th . Despite the odds, however, both ultimately prevailed through perseverance. We, like our ancestors in faith, are challenged to cultivate that same type of perseverance in the pursuit of justice wherever it may be, in our own backyard or in some far off corner of the world.
A sage in ancient Athens was once asked -- when will injustice be abolished?
“When those who are not wronged are as indignant as those who are,” he answered.
Today’s parable draws a sharp contrast between God and the unjust judge, posing this rhetorical question. If a powerless widow can obtain justice from a corrupt and heartless judge, how much more can we expect from our just and loving Father? …..Huge, Rochester, huge!
Anthony J Sciolino
Exodus 17:8-13; 2
Timothy 3:14-4:2;
Luke 18:1-8.
29th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
October 21, 2007. (Cycle C)