14 November 2015 - inexorable mercy

There was a judge in a certain town
who neither feared God nor respected any human being. 

Jesus does not compare God to this judge because he is similar to him but because he is not. There is a certain self-deprecating sense of humor by which he even makes the comparison. He knows that we tend to think of God that way. We think of ourselves as in the right and the one whom we ask as unjust for not answering us. We imagine that he is too self-absorbed, too disinterested, or too lazy to answer us. Of course we never think these things explicitly. But by allowing the comparison to be made he brings to light our implicit feelings.

But then we ask. And we wait. And wait. And once we wait all of these feelings start cropping up again. We would understand immediate refusal. We would be happy if our prayer was eventually accepted. But what is this waiting business? Why would we have to wait unless we were really dealing with an unjust judge? How can we really "pray always without becoming weary"?

We need to learn that God is for us and not against us (cf. Rom. 8:31). We need to understand that this brief momentary affliction is preparing us for the weight of glory (cf. 2 Cor. 4:17).

This is what the Office of Readings is talking about today:

If God gave virtue an immediate recompense, we should straightway find ourselves engaging in commerce, instead of perfecting ourselves in his service. Although to all outward appearance we might be irreproachable, we should not be seeking God, but our own advantage, and bringing down on our sinful souls the divine judgment that would soon make us feel the full weight of our chains.

One reason we wait on God is so we never learn to treat him like a coin operated gumball machine. We have a tendency to do that anyway without any encouragement.

Another reason is we wait is so that our desire for God is purified and strengthened. We learn to long for what can truly satisfy rather than the things of this world. Every hardship endured along the way need only point us more directly toward God.

He doesn't intervene on our schedule. But he does come. His mercy is inexorable.

When peaceful stillness compassed everything
and the night in its swift course was half spent,
Your all-powerful word, from heaven’s royal throne
bounded, a fierce warrior, into the doomed land

When we know for sure that God is not the unjust judge we grow in hope for what we do not yet see and we wait with confidence (cf. Rom. 8:25).

Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones
who call out to him day and night? 
Will he be slow to answer them? 
I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. 
But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”