If you’ve never tried to hold your arms above your head for a protracted period, you can’t begin to imagine what Moses was experiencing when he was in this position of supplication while his people went up against Amalek. To my knowledge, this is the first documented instance of isometric exercise. Moses knew what was required of him, to remain in this position invoking God’s help for his people, so his resolve was great, yet despite this, eventually he needed help. Aaron and Hur saw what the results of Moses lowering his arms were. Their people began to be defeated, and so they held Moses arms up and their army prevailed.
This same kind of resolve, and aid is evident in our Gospel today as well, though the message is that we too can receive this kind of help directly from the source of all good things – God. The parable of the widow and the dishonest judge should remind us that God does listen to our prayers and entreaties, and that persistence in prayer is a good means of showing to God our desire for His help, and our confidence that He will provide that. It is not human nature to continue to pursue a course of action unless we are confident that it will produce an outcome.
There are times that most of us have experienced, for a lack of a better term – “a dryness” in our prayer lives. It may at times feel like there may not be anyone listening. This happens to everyone, and believe it or not, there is a distinct purpose behind it. For one thing, it is a reminder that God is not a “Pez dispenser” for things that we desire and even pray for. Sometimes these things may not be what are best for us according to God’s plan. It may seem to us at the time like what we ask in prayer is both reasonable, and beneficial, the trouble is that we do not always have the complete picture and so may not understand why these things are not granted to us. It is at this point that we need to exercise a bit of trust. The same God who has given us so many good things in our lives, does hear us, but may have an even better idea in mind. It’s not always easy to do this, we like to think we are in control, but the reality is that we are anything but. Even the Saints struggled with this. If you read the accounts of many of their lives, there usually comes a point when they experience what they perceive as a distancing in their relationship with God, and His willingness to hear them. This is often referred to as the “Dark night of the Soul”. It is a time of testing, and of purification. The purification is one designed to take them from being somewhat blindly reliant, and to force them to really ponder their depth of belief, and ultimately their actual trust and reliance on God. We too, as we develop in our personal relationship with God are often subjected to the same thing as we mature in that. This is where that persistence that we heard about in our Gospel comes into play. Will we continue to pray? Will we ultimately rely on God, even when our perception is that He seems distant? Will we take our relationship of trust in Him to the level where we can honestly say we will seek Him no matter what the circumstance, or how much it might test our limited understanding? These are hard questions, and are the ones that define our purity of belief and faith. God has always sought our love with an unwavering level of commitment and sacrifice, now it is our turn to do the same.
The Deacons Bench 