In today’s gospel, Jesus poses this question to his disciples:
When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?
One can surmise that Jesus wasn’t inquiring about “numbers”—how much faith the Son of Man will find when he returns—just whether he will find faith. Period. The question is one for which there’s a simple and straightforward “Yes” or “No” answer: “Yes” the Son of Man will find faith or “No” he won’t. Jesus wasn’t interested in any equivocating and arguing similar to how the Jewish religious lawyers—the Pharisees—debated the Law to uncover loopholes to free people from its requirements.
That kind equivocating and arguing today is for Catholics who want what’s called “faith lite.” Who wants the Church to make demands? No, the Church should make Catholics feel good about themselves! For this past Church year, that’s what has been called “sleepy” Catholicism and it’s what characterizes “sleepy” Catholics, which all Catholics are to one degree or another due to the residual effects of what the Church calls “Original Sin.”
Interestingly, Jesus didn’t define what faith is but related the now-familiar parable about a widow who confronted an unjust judge. The parable’s point communicated clearly what constitutes faith’s primary characteristic: Persistence...especially when the odds of failure are high, for example, when the deck is stacked against you. “When the Son of Man comes,” Jesus asks, “will he find disciples persisting?”
What does it mean to “persist”?
Persistence is a natural virtue, one that’s knowable by reason and cultivated to a significant extent through effort. To persist is to maintain focus and not be distracted by other matters that aren’t bad in themselves but in the present moment threaten to divert attention away from what should be done in the present.
Persistence is the antithesis of procrastination and multitasking, requiring a person to focus upon accomplishing one task to the best of one’s ability rather than attempt to accomplish too much at one time and end up performing none of them well. Living in a world where doing two or more simultaneously is lauded as virtuous, Jesus may have a valid point that “sleepy” Catholics should consider. Ever been having a conversation with someone who keeps checking the cellphone for an instant message or whose eyes keep darting around focusing everywhere but upon you?
But that wasn’t the point Jesus was making.
Providing some context, St. Luke states that Jesus was teaching his disciples “about the necessity…to pray always without becoming weary.” As the parable unfurls its primary moral lesson, Jesus tells his disciples that faith requires and is measured in terms of persistence in prayer as his disciples “call out to God day and night” because, after all, they are God’s “chosen ones.”
Speaking to disciples who were primarily if not exclusively Jewish, the term “chosen ones” immediately called to mind the covenant God established with the Hebrew people…they were to be God’s “Chosen People,” a people peculiarly His own as this was to be evident in their way of life. Jesus was asking his disciples—when their dream of the Messiah’s return is finally fulfilled—will the Son of Man find faith on earth?
A simple “yes” or “no” will do, thank you.
Yet, what Jesus really was inquiring about concerned whether their faith would persist across the generations until the Son of Man finally comes. With the Jews having been waiting for the promised Messiah to come for generations, would the disciples’ faith peter out and eventually dissipate into the ether for the reason the Son of Man didn’t return? With the hope going unfulfilled, would his disciples grow lax, failing to persist in prayer calling out to God day and night?
That’s the problem with what’s called the “prosperity gospel.” The preacher promises that if members of the congregation convert wholly and entirely to the gospel, God will shower material blessings upon them. But it must be asked, what happens when people convert to the gospel and the promised material blessings aren’t delivered to their doorstep as quickly as those folks want? After all, most of them live in an overnight or 2-day Amazon Prime delivery world. For Jesus’ disciples, it’s been almost 2000 years! That’s a long time to persist, isn’t it? So many don’t persist in prayer and eventually give up on their faith altogether.
Chiam Potok’s book The Chosen suggests the only reason there will be faith on earth when the Son of Man returns—God’s promised Messiah—is if the Jewish people live in the abiding awareness they have a soul. Should they forget this, the Jewish people will eventually be swallowed up by their cares and concerns about life in this world. Then, when the Son of Man finally does return, he won’t find faith on earth because the Jewish people failed to persist in prayer. But, should the Jews live in the abiding awareness they have a soul and persist in prayer, when the promise is fulfilled—the Son of Man, the promised Messiah, does finally return—he will find faith on earth.
The underlying theme of The Chosen is the ongoing battle that generated a schism within two orthodox traditions of Judaism, one that persists not in prayer but in division even to this day. In each successive generation, the battle for the heart of Judaism has taken the form of each side viewing itself as living the Jewish faith authentically and castigating the other side for living the faith inauthentically.
At the risk of overgeneralizing, one group of orthodox emphasizes living the “spirit” of God’s law—adapting its meaning to the present-day world. Although its male adherents dress conventionally, they are recognizable because most wear a yarmulke—a “skull cap.” The second group of orthodox—the “ultra-orthodox”—emphasizes living the “letter” of God’s law—implementing exactly what it states in the present-day world. Its male adherents are easily recognizable by their attire: black clothing and a coat, a white shirt, maybe a black tie, as well as a black or ornamentalized yarmulke and fedora. They also have a beard and ear locks (called “peiyot” or “simanim” meaning “signs” of their fidelity in living the letter of the Law).
This schism within the Chosen People of God will only be healed, in Potok’s estimation, when those on both sides use their intelligence to develop compassion for their fellow Jews who don’t practice the faith as they do. After all, they share the same faith, the only difference being how they live it daily.
Is that difference sufficiently substantive enough to divide God’s Chosen People perhaps making it impossible for the Son of God to return because there’s no authentic faith on earth? It shouldn’t be, if only because what unites both sects of orthodox Judaism—whose adherents constitute the minority of Jews—is greater than what divides them. Yet, hardness of heart and stubbornness of will persists with neither side living the Jewish faith authentically. Worse yet, the majority of Jews don’t practice their faith except perhaps on the high holy days. Why are the orthodox arguing and bickering among themselves when they should be seeking the salvation of the souls of their co-religionists?
To emphasize this point, the father of one of Potok’s characters—an ultra-orthodox Jewish rabbi—raised his firstborn and now teenaged son, Danny, in silence…never talking to him except to discuss the Torah. Many believed this “silent treatment” was due to Danny’s having befriended the son of an orthodox Jew, Reuven, and this friend would cause Danny to lose his ultra-orthodox faith. However, the truth was that Danny’s father feared his son’s phenomenal intelligence—he possessed a photographic memory—would lead Danny not to have compassion for others. His father’s intention was to teach Danny through the “silent treatment” to learn what it is to suffer, and therefore, to live in the abiding awareness that he has a soul.
Why? Danny’s father was aware his firstborn son wanted to become a clinical psychologist, not as was customary in the ultra-orthodox community to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a rabbi. Wisdom taught Danny’s father that his son would need to persist in prayer—to deal with God as Job did amid the vicissitudes that life presents along the way, for example, a father who didn’t talk with his son about the things sons are interested in talking about—so he would live in the abiding awareness he not only had a soul but also this awareness would generate in Danny compassion for the struggles others confront along the way of their lives.
Perhaps this wasn’t the best way to build a relationship with one’s son. But it wasn’t a bad quality of character to foster in a son whose desire was to be a clinical psychologist to possess, no?
As Catholics, each of us is one of God’s “chosen ones.” Through the Sacrament of Baptism, we’ve been initiated into the life of the Church, forming what St. Peter called “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession… (1 Peter 2:9). Yet, like the Jews who grew tired of persisting in prayer for the promised Messiah’s return because he hadn’t come (and hasn’t yet), our failure to persist in prayer day and night—what used to be called “Morning Prayers” (“Lauds”) and “Evening Prayers” (“Vespers”)—ineluctably ends in a loss of faith as our concerns about life in this world crowd out sharing the contents of our souls—those concerns about our challenges and struggles—with God. Ultimately not having a vibrant and living relationship with God, we forget we have a soul.
That’s a good lesson for “sleepy” Catholics! As a natural virtue, persistence needs to be cultivated and one area in particular that it should be cultivated is in prayer. To persist in prayer day and night requires cultivating a living relationship with God and focusing upon God. Its contents aren’t memorized formulas but the challenges and struggles “sleepy” Catholics confront each day and which can weigh them down. For many if not most “sleepy” Catholics, that would require persisting in prayer all day and all night…which, of course, represents precisely what Jesus taught and how he prayed to his heavenly Father!
As we heard in today’s first reading, Moses provides an object lesson in what persisting in prayer requires if “sleepy” Catholics are to become “WOKE” Catholics. Confronting the forces of evil in his day—the Amalekites—as long as Moses kept his arms raised in prayer to invoke God’s blessing, the Hebrew people would seize the advantage. But when Moses rested his arms—when he didn’t persist in prayer—the Amalekites would seize the advantage. And, so the war went back and forth on the field of battle, all depending upon whether Moses persisted in prayer.
Observing this phenomenon, Aaron and Hur decided to become what today we’d call “prayer partners.” With one positioned on Moses left and the other on Moses right, Moses’ arms remained raised all day. Persisting all day in prayer until sunset—invoking God’s blessing upon the Hebrew warriors—Joshua finally mowed down the Amalekites in a bloody swordfight.
[As an aside, the image of this battle which is seared into my memory is Mel Brooks’ depiction in “History of the World: Part I.” The Radio City Music Hall Rockettes were cast as the Amalekites. As Aaron and Hur realize how the enemy’s troops reacted to the position of Moses’ arms, Aaron and Hur would move the Rockettes forward, backward, and in circles performing their famous line dance “can-can” and other routines. Not quite the bloody carnage inflicted upon the Amalekites but pretty funny nonetheless.]
To the point of Jesus’ parable about the widow’s persistence with the unjust judge: As St. Paul wrote to Timothy in today’s epistle, if we’re to “remain faithful to what you have learned and believed,” we need to persist in prayer by awaking from our slumber and arising from our sleep to the new day that’s dawning for those “WOKE” Catholics who possess the abiding awareness they have a soul. Success in this endeavor—not to be weighed down and distracted by the cares and concerns associated with daily life in this world that ends in forgetting we have a soul—requires assistance, just as Moses needed the assistance of Aaron and Hur, that is, if his prayers were to be heard by God and lead to the defeat of the Amalekites.
All of this raises a question for “sleepy” Catholics to answer: Who will assist them in prayer and how will they assist them to persist in prayer?
While on sabbatical the past three months, I’ve been attending Sunday Mass at two parishes. Although the congregation at each differs in some ways, I’ve seen how “WOKE” Catholics function as “prayer partners” for “sleepy” Catholics by witnessing to their faith:
- Especially edifying are those families who worship together as families. Not only are they attentive but they also communicate their love and affection for one another in very tangible ways—holding and squeezing hands during the prayers, hugging and kissing one another at the Sign of Peace, turning and smiling and winking at one another, and the like. As they persist in praying together as a family, they provide a visible sign of their faith which encourages the other members of their families. They also challenge others in the congregation to persist in prayer so they might also build that kind of holy family—though, it’s quite likely, not a “perfect” family but, as Jack Nicholson noted, about “as good as one gets” in this world.
- Also edifying are married couples who communicate that they are “very married.” These couples are so very easy to spot: They hold hands, put their arms around one another’s backs, sidle up to and nestle together during the readings, hold hands during the Our Father, and demonstrate great respect and affection for each other in so many varied ways. As they persist in praying together as a couple, they provide a visible sign of their faith that reaffirms their wedding vows and honors the third party to the marriage—God—as the source of their married life. It also encourages and challenges other married couples as well as the unmarried who are considering marriage to do what’s necessary if they are to build that kind of holy marriage—though, it’s quite likely, it’s not “perfect” but about as good as marriage gets in this world.
- The most edifying, I’d observe if only because news reports today portray young people and adults as completely out of control, selfish, narcissistic miscreants or as smarter and more audacious than most adults, are the young people and young adults whose piety as they worship provides a source of inspiration as well as challenge to their peers. Watching on as they actively listen to the readings from Scripture as well as the homily, it’s easy to see them opening their minds and hearts to God’s Word. These young people surely are confronting many difficult challenges in their lives that could weigh them down and distract them but through it all they’re making a valiant effort to persist in prayer and ground themselves in a living relationship with God to resolve those difficult challengs confronting those young people. Doing so, their witness assists their peers to see there is better way if they also cultivate the natural virtue of persistence and, as Catholics, persistence in prayer.
All these folks are attempting to arise from being “sleepy” Catholics in a determined effort to be “WOKE” Catholics who live in the abiding awareness they have a soul. With this awareness, these folks are persisting in prayer by bringing their daily concerns and worries to God. And when the Son of Man comes, he will find faith on earth…as the witness of these families, marriages, and young people attests.
Having also spent the past three months residing in a homeowner’s association—many of which I personally know to have terrible legal disputes and the like—I discovered this HOA has a group of neighbors who meet regularly to pray for others. Imagine that! People who gather for the expressed purpose of intercessory prayer in a way that’s similar to Aaron and Hur supporting Moses’ arms. To identify what to pray for, the group has placed a painted box with butterflies—a prayer box—as well as paper and a pen in the community’s lodge for HOA members to write down and place into the box any prayer requests they might have. The group offers a prayer when it meets for all requests made—named or anonymous.
Not many Catholics pray day and night without ceasing nor do many of them belong to prayer groups. Offering those “sleepy” Catholics opportunities to remember they have a soul and to share their concerns and cares with God is a ministry…a ministry of care and support for the moral and spiritual development of others. It’s what many cloistered communities of religious women have dedicated their lives to…withdrawing from the world to persist in intercessory prayer on behalf of the many nameless and faceless “sleepy” Catholics so they might know they have a soul and persist in prayer so that when the Son of Man returns he will find faith on earth.
In these and so many other ways, “WOKE” Catholics serve as “prayer partners”—Aarons and Hurs—for others who may be “sleepy” Catholics and need assistance so they won’t waver but be strengthened in their flagging efforts to persist in prayer day and night.
That represents this week’s challenge from scripture: To persist in prayer day and night.
One way we can “do this, in memory of me” this week is to conduct this memento mori: As the challenges and struggles of each day arise—as they surely will—don’t allow them to weigh you down and distract you from persisting in prayer day and night. Success requires changing what may be for most of us a habitual pattern—from reacting to those challenges and struggles to responding to them.
How might we “do this, in memory of me”?
Take a moment to share and discuss those challenges and struggles briefly with God. As this practice becomes a habit—a form of mortification directing attention to what discipleship requires in the present moment not everything else that’s in past or will be in the future—persisting in prayer naturally purifies us of that form of selfishness which distracts attention away from the soul. Then, as this habit becomes habitual, we grow in love of God and as our souls animate our daily lives we grow in love of neighbor. If necessary, read the Book of Job to see how it’s done.
“Sleepy” Catholics are so used to reacting to those challenges and struggles—getting angry or irate, swearing or cursing, hollering or yelling—they push God to the peripheries of their days. Doing so, however, “sleepy” Catholics eventually forget they have a soul and when the Son of Man returns, he won’t find faith on earth.
For those who have learned to respond rather than react to those challenges and struggles—“WOKE” Catholics—this week’s response to its memento mori is to become a prayer partner with “sleepy” Catholics. Just like Aaron and Hur, assist those folks to keep their arms held aloft against the enemy. Ask what’s afflicting them and weighing them down. Listen attentively and patiently, offering advice and encouragement or a verbal prayer of intercession—or tell them you’ll pray for them—to remind them, as the Psalmist reminded us today, “Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” The purpose of this intervention is for “sleepy” Catholics to experience the fulfillment of the promise we were made on Christmas Eve: “They shall name him ‘Emmanuel,’ that is, ‘God is with us’.” You could also join a prayer group or share those cares and concerns with God in prayer.
Then, as St. Paul reminded the Thessalonians in today’s Alleluia versicle, let us never forget to “give thanks” which in Greek means “to celebrate the Eucharist” as a community of those who strive to live the Catholic faith actively by participating at Mass. This powerful form of witnessing to the Catholic faith will challenge the people around you to become more “WOKE” Catholics. It also will provide the opportunity to bring all those challenges and struggles you’ve heard and prayed for during the past week directly to God. “For this is the will of God for you,” St. Paul wrote, “in Christ Jesus.”
In this way and as “WOKE” Catholics, we will develop the natural virtue of persistence as Jesus taught, in prayer, and become more “WOKE” Catholics. Then, when the Son of Man returns—whether that’s today, next year, or the next millennia—he will find faith on earth because we witnessed to it and others acted upon our witness realizing they have a soul.
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