“We don’t need self-confidence we need God-confidence”

"What offends Him and what wounds His Heart is the lack of confidence...Your heart is made to love Jesus, to love Him passionately...We have only the short moments of our life to love Jesus!" - Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

Gospel Text: (LK 18:1-8)

Jesus told his disciples a parable

about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.

He said, “There was a judge in a certain town

who neither feared God nor respected any human being.

And a widow in that town used to come to him and say,

‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’

For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought,

‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being,

because this widow keeps bothering me

I shall deliver a just decision for her

lest she finally come and strike me.’”

The Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says.

Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones

who call out to him day and night?

Will he be slow to answer them?

I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily.

But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Is it possible that this woman’s persistence came from her confidence in God and his provision? You can imagine her conviction that God would never abandon one of his children.

Though we don’t know why God sometimes delays, we can learn, like her, to be patient and to pray continually, not out of desperation but in hope. Such prayer can calm our hearts. It can teach us that in praying and obeying to the best of our ability, we are doing all that God asks of us. The rest is up to him, and he will answer according to his infinite wisdom.

Jesus ended his parable by asking whether, when he returns, he will find any faith on the earth. This was not an arbitrary question that he stuck in as an afterthought. The kind of faith Jesus is looking for is the faith of this persistent widow: a faith of confidence, contentment, and courage. When we have faith like this, our prayers are not filled with desperate begging but with joyful expectancy.