C.S. Lewis, Joy, and Persistent Prayer: Homily for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C

The dramatic scene from the first reading,
with Moses raising the staff of God during battle,
and Joshua mowing down Amalek,
almost feels like a scene from The Lord of the Rings.
But it’s not Tolkien that I find most helpful in breaking open today’s scripture,
but rather one of his best friends, C.S. Lewis.

Lewis, as many of you know,
was the author of the Narnia series,
that wonderful set of books about Aslan, Prince Caspian,
and the magical world on the other side of the wardrobe.

Lewis got married late in life,
when he was fifty-eight years old, in fact,
to a woman named Joy Davidman, who was forty-one.
After being a bachelor all his life,
Lewis’ relationship with Joy transformed him into a better man,
a man he didn’t know he could be.
This is what all deep relationships do.
They challenge us, they reflect us back to ourselves
so we can see who we are and who we are becoming.
They stretch us and open us up to new possibilities.
Deep relationships transform us.

And this is what prayer does,
because prayer is our relationship with God.
In prayer we encounter God
and are transformed.

But as today’s readings remind us
that can only happen if we pray always,
without growing weary.
Today’s readings are about perseverance in prayer.

Moses persevered in keeping his hands raised up,
and so Amalek was defeated.
The letter to Timothy says,
“be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient.”
And in the gospel the widow’s perseverance
moves the judge to give her justice.

What these readings illustrate is that prayer, like any deep relationship,
takes time and faith,
and doesn’t always feel good.

Prayer Takes Time

Earlier in the gospel of Luke,
Jesus tells us to seek and we will find,
knock and the door will be opened.
But he doesn’t say how long we’ll have to search,
or how hard we’ll have to knock.

Moses had to hold his arms up for hours,
from dawn to dusk.
The widow had to keep bothering the judge day after day.
Sometimes it takes years before we see the fruit of our prayers.

How many prayers were said in cotton fields
before slavery was outlawed in this country?
How many people prayed for an end to World War I or World War II
or the Vietnam War, before we had peace?
How long will we have to pray for abortion to end, or poverty,
or the crisis in the middle east?

Prayer takes time.

There was once a gathering of people who had come together
to fight oppression and injustice.
The elderly minister who was to lead them in prayer
chose this gospel of the widow and the unjust judge.
After reading it to them he interpreted it in one sentence:
“Unless you have stood for years knocking at a locked door,
your knuckles bleeding, you do not really know what prayer is.”

That vivid image gets to the heart of prayer.
Not only do you stand at the door for years,
but it also hurts to keep knocking.

Prayer Doesn’t Always Feel Good

Prayer doesn’t always feel good.
Moses got tired and had to sit on a rock
while Aaron and Hur helped him hold his arms up.
The widow broke social conventions by speaking on her own behalf,
facing scorn and rejection.
Prayer can be uncomfortable and painful.

It can be difficult to wake up early and spend time with Scripture,
in conversation with God,
especially when we have so much to accomplish during the day.
Pray can often feel dry and fruitless.

And it hurts when our prayers don’t seem to be answered.

Prayer Takes Faith

But prayer is about being persistent
even when we don’t get what we’ve asked for.
This is the meaning of Jesus’ final question:
“When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
In other words, will he find people of prayer?
It takes faith to engage in the long work of prayer.
But it is the long work of prayer that makes all the difference.
Faith is the engine that drives prayer,
especially when our prayers don’t seem to be answered.

“It would be a mistake to think…that if we pray hard enough
we’re going to get what we want every time.
We know from human experience that that’s not the case.
And that’s okay…there are other graces associated with persistence
besides getting what we ask for.”¹

The Prayer of Jesus

And when we are tempted to lose heart,
when we grow weary of praying,
we can be encouraged by Jesus’ own prayer life,
seen most especially in the Gospel of Luke.

“In Luke’s Gospel Jesus is truly a person of prayer.
He prays at all the decisive moments in his life:
he prays at his baptism (3:21);
[he prays] before he chooses the Twelve (6:12);
His disciples see him at prayer
and ask that he teach them how to pray (11:1-4).
Finally, two parables are devoted to the theme of prayer:
the friend who comes at midnight (11:5-13)
and [today’s parable of the] widow
who beseeches the judge for justice (18:1-8).”²

But perhaps the scene that is most vivid to us
is Jesus’ prayer in the garden of Gethsemane,
where he asks, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me;
still, not my will but yours be done.”

Some ancients texts, in describing this scene, say:
“He was in such agony and he prayed so fervently
that his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground (22:44).”

That is prayer.

And yet, Jesus did drink the cup of suffering.
He did go through passion and death.
It was his Father’s will.
Jesus has faith that his Father hears his prayer,
but he also understands
that sometimes the Father’s will is different than our own.

But whether our prayers are answered or not,
they do transform us.

C.S. Lewis understood this well.
Shortly after he and Joy married,
she was diagnosed with cancer.
They only got to spend four years together
as husband and wife.

And while Joy was sick,
he, of course, prayed for her recovery.
The movie Shadowlands dramatizes their relationship,
and there is one scene in which a friend of Lewis
asks him how Joy is doing.
“Good news, I think,” says Lewis.
His friend says,
“I know how hard you have been praying,
and now God is answering your prayer.”
Lewis replies,
“That’s not why I pray.
I pray because I can’t help myself.
I pray because I’m helpless.
I pray because the need flows out of me all the time – waking and sleeping.
It doesn’t change God — it changes me.”

Persistent prayer is prayer than changes us.
Persistent prayer is transformational.
It isn’t necessarily immediate.
It doesn’t necessarily feel good.
And it requires and faith.

But just as C.S. Lewis met Joy late in life
and was transformed by their relationship,
it is never too late for us to begin our prayer life anew,
to renew our personal relationship with God.

 

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^1. Sr. Melannie Svoboda, “The Grace of Persistence,” in Give Us This Day, October 2016.
^2. Fr. Thomas Rosica, “God Will Vindicate His Chosen Ones,” Salt and Light Media, October 10, 2016.

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