In our parable today Jesus is using this widow's persistence as an example of what prayer should be like. A life of prayer in the Gospel of Luke is one of asking, seeking, knocking, waiting, trusting, starting over again and never losing heart. We see this over and over again where the "practice of prayer" must be an uncompromising process. This parable features a person in need persistently pressing a request. Persistently asking, seeking, knocking, waiting, trusting and starting over. Prayer needs to be continual and persistent Luke is saying: the length of the prayer does not matter, but the persistence does. I wonder where God's grace is in this need, this demand, that we be so persistent in our prayers. This parable raises a number of questions for me. Why do we pray? What is the form of our prayer? Why is Luke asking us to be so persistent in our prayer? And for what do we pray? Questions are good when we interact with the Bible. They lead to a deeper awareness of God in our lives.

In the epistle reading today, Timothy sees persistence in prayer in a different light. Timothy sees praying as a way of resisting the self-serving search for teachers and preachers who just say what we want to hear as opposed to what is difficult to bear: perhaps something that leaves us with a limp? Sometimes it is hard to bear the limp. At times it is hard to look beyond what we do not like and see an answer to our prayers that has come in some unexpected form. Many times, God's grace can be found right at that juncture.

Luke sees perseverance in prayer as something fundamentally different. Although this perseverance can lead to bringing more justice in the world, that is not the focus of Luke's parable or the theme of prayer that runs through Gospel of Luke and Acts. Luke is being ironic when he says that an unjust judge who "neither feared God nor had respect for people" will provide justice when pestered enough. Will not God do at least as much, even for us who can be as irritating as the widow? Jesus tells us so in today's Gospel reading. But Jesus' last question in the Gospel today punches us in the stomach: "And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" I think Jesus is asking us why we pray. Are we asking for things because we believe we deserve them? Or are we willing, like Jacob, to be given a new name, a new task and even a limp?

Luke takes this parable that is about prayer and God's grace and love, and asks: well what about faith. We are very close to the end of Jesus' journey to Jerusalem in today's Gospel account. And so much of this part of Jesus' journey revolves around faith, and how integral faith and prayer are to each other. So much of faith is about mystery: Jesus' Incarnation, Jesus' miracles and parables, his death and resurrection, our Eucharistic Prayers and the power of prayers. There is so much mystery we are asked to live into. And prayer helps us do that.... as prayer is a way of constantly staying in relationship with God. Prayer is faith in action. Prayer is not a symbol of our relationship with God, but is the very essence of our relationship with God.