NOTES for Luk 18:2-8

At the heart of the biblical understanding of faith lies the idea of faithfulness, and the corresponding words, both Greek and Hebrew, mean precisely faithfulness in the books of the Bible. Today's reading draws our attention to one aspect of the relationships defined by the word ‘faithfulness’: steadfastness and constancy in pursuing a goal. Of course, the example of a judge who took up a legal case that held no interest or use for him merely so that he would be left in peace looks like a caricature from any point of view. But the point here is, of course, not the judge but the persistent widow. The parable's meaning is simple: if your steadfastness can ‘wear down’ even someone who could not care less about you, then it is all the easier in such a case to reach God, who most certainly does care about us. But why are persistence and steadfastness so important? Surely God knows what we need and how much we need it, even without our persistence? Of course He does. Perhaps steadfastness and persistence are needed not by Him but by us. So that, having received what we have asked for, we do not immediately change our minds, or fail to notice what we have received because our attention has already shifted to something else. God will not, of course, take offence at us, but we will not manage the journey to the Kingdom that way: to manage it, we need the Kingdom to become the sole meaning and sole purpose of our life. Then both steadfastness and persistence will follow.