JUSTICE DONE SPEEDILY

PRAYER MOMENT 

Saturday 15 November 2014

JUSTICE DONE SPEEDILY

                     

Pause. Be still in God’s presence.

Reading: “Will not God see justice done to his chosen who cry to him day and night even when he delays to help them?. I promise you, he will see justice done, and done speedily.” (Luke 18:1-8)

Reflection. We quickly note the contradiction in these words of Jesus – “delays” and “speedily” – and wonder how these two words are held together. We sometimes hear people say, “I prayed and prayed but nothing happened.”  We see whole countries labouring under unjust governments for decades where the churches continually pray for relief and it doesn’t come. So the ‘delay’ bit we understand. What about the ‘speedily’ bit? Well, I do not think there is a neat answer except to ask about the way we pray. Jesus commends persistence but he also – in the Our Father – teaches us to long for the “thy will” to be done. Unconsciously or otherwise we often want God to do what we want and we fail to see that he is already acting in our lives – even if it is in a way different from what we expected. Can we not say that God is working in the midst of suffering and bringing light out of darkness, if we have eyes to see.

Prayer. Lord, help us to persevere in our prayer always attentive to how you are working in our lives and in the world.  Amen.  

David Harold-Barry SJ