Fr. Carlo Di Sopra, SX
A judge, a widow and her adversaries are the protagonists in the gospel today. Their story is the story of all of us, the story of the world itself. The widow in fact represents all the ‘victims’ of any kind, often innocent victims of any kind of violence. She represents all those who suffer, those who are unable to make sense of what they are going through.
How many of them there are in the world today! From those under the bombs in Syria, many of them innocent children, those who die or go through unspeakable hazards on the seas fleeing from the war zones, the victims of terrorism, victims who suffer for the greed of the rich and have to live in sheer poverty, victims of less evident yet equally real sufferings, of big or small disappointments, divisions, solitude, domestic violence: Injustice! And a huge call for ‘justice’! Indeed the cry for justice soars from so many hearts! A call for justice to be done.
We may have a different and varied perception about what justice is or should be. At times, when we try to define and implement, it we may incur the risk of doing more injustice, like impatient uprooting of weeds in the farm may compromise the harvest. Even religion can be interpreted or used in a wrong way, as Pope Francis, in his recent journey to Georgia and Azerbaijan expressed, pleading that no more killings be perpetrated in the name of God. Yes, because, though the word ‘justice’ is used in different contexts and has to be administered by human judges, it has to do in the last instance with God, his plan for everybody. The judge in the gospel, in fact, represents God himself.
It is also problematic to describe the ‘adversary’ of the widow, the one who causes victims to suffer. We could do it by trying to draw a clear line between the good and the wicked, and then make the wicked suffer or succumb. But in this way wickedness would thrive again. Maybe, due to this difficulty the judge in the Gospel, God, for a long time appears too slow to do justice. Moses too, in the first reading, has to endure the long time of the battle and the pain of keeping his arms stretched up to heaven, before God gives an answer to his prayer.
Widow and adversary are surely present in the humanity of whom I am part. The widow and her adversary are both in me. And this long time is the time of my becoming aware of it and getting converted. The palava, the argument between widow and adversary will be settled with my and our opening up to God. His presence and his action in this world so full of tensions will be the permanent settlement of the palavas. A slow process that can also fail because God does not rob us of our freedom: ‘will the Son of man find faith on earth...?’. But also the certainty that God is ready to intervene: ‘He will see to it that justice is done for them and speedily’!
Father, your will be done,
your kingdom come...!
A judge, a widow and her adversaries are the protagonists in the gospel today. Their story is the story of all of us, the story of the world itself. The widow in fact represents all the ‘victims’ of any kind, often innocent victims of any kind of violence. She represents all those who suffer, those who are unable to make sense of what they are going through.
How many of them there are in the world today! From those under the bombs in Syria, many of them innocent children, those who die or go through unspeakable hazards on the seas fleeing from the war zones, the victims of terrorism, victims who suffer for the greed of the rich and have to live in sheer poverty, victims of less evident yet equally real sufferings, of big or small disappointments, divisions, solitude, domestic violence: Injustice! And a huge call for ‘justice’! Indeed the cry for justice soars from so many hearts! A call for justice to be done.
We may have a different and varied perception about what justice is or should be. At times, when we try to define and implement, it we may incur the risk of doing more injustice, like impatient uprooting of weeds in the farm may compromise the harvest. Even religion can be interpreted or used in a wrong way, as Pope Francis, in his recent journey to Georgia and Azerbaijan expressed, pleading that no more killings be perpetrated in the name of God. Yes, because, though the word ‘justice’ is used in different contexts and has to be administered by human judges, it has to do in the last instance with God, his plan for everybody. The judge in the gospel, in fact, represents God himself.
It is also problematic to describe the ‘adversary’ of the widow, the one who causes victims to suffer. We could do it by trying to draw a clear line between the good and the wicked, and then make the wicked suffer or succumb. But in this way wickedness would thrive again. Maybe, due to this difficulty the judge in the Gospel, God, for a long time appears too slow to do justice. Moses too, in the first reading, has to endure the long time of the battle and the pain of keeping his arms stretched up to heaven, before God gives an answer to his prayer.
Widow and adversary are surely present in the humanity of whom I am part. The widow and her adversary are both in me. And this long time is the time of my becoming aware of it and getting converted. The palava, the argument between widow and adversary will be settled with my and our opening up to God. His presence and his action in this world so full of tensions will be the permanent settlement of the palavas. A slow process that can also fail because God does not rob us of our freedom: ‘will the Son of man find faith on earth...?’. But also the certainty that God is ready to intervene: ‘He will see to it that justice is done for them and speedily’!
Father, your will be done,
your kingdom come...!