Hearts Raised in Prayer!

Sunday, October 19, 2025

Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Ex 17:8-13; 2 Tim 3:14-4:2; Lk 18:1-8

The twenty-ninth Sunday highlights ‘hearts raised in prayer’ as the real Christian strength.  

The readings of the day invite us to rely on the strength that comes from our prayer. 

The first reading offers wonderful imagery in the form of Moses’ ‘hands raised in prayer.’ When the Amalekites attack the Israelites, Moses commands Joshua to lead the battle while he himself climbs to the top of a hill to pray, accompanied by Aaron and Hur. Israel’s lead in the war depends on the raised hands of Moses. Hence, Aaron and Hur support Moses’ hands to stay raised until the victory of God’s people. The ‘raised hands’ is a beautiful image to not only show how our intercessory prayer must be constant and unending but also to signify how it gives joy to God. Moses’ gesture also suggests that the fullest way to experience divine favor depends on our willingness to uphold others in prayer.

In the second reading, we find Paul urging Timothy to remain faithful to the Scriptural wisdom because it comes from God. For this reason, Paul insists on the binding nature of Scriptural wisdom, which is also transformative in nature. Hence, proclaiming the life-transforming God’s Word is not an option for God’s minister but a mandatory task. Paul also wishes that God’s ministers would continue the proclamation without being worried about the reception or outcome. More importantly, he stresses that the uniqueness and integrity of God’s Word must be preserved, eliminating any temptation to infuse any relativist notions. 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus highlights the importance of persistence in prayer. 

Jesus lets us see the characters of the three people involved in the parable. 

The Good God: We may wonder why Jesus gives the example of the unjust judge to teach perseverance in prayer. The parable of the unjust judge serves as an example of how God will be unlike him. In other words, Jesus gives the parable to contrast the goodness of God with the wickedness of the judge. Unlike the judge, God answers our prayers out of love and mercy, and not because He is bothered by them. Prayer is an appeal made to God in love and trust. God’s answer comes in reward of that. 

The Unjust Judge: He was unjust because he neither feared God nor respected humans. Jesus lets us see the consequences of not fearing God. Jesus means that we cannot expect anything good to come out of a person who does not fear God. In addition, we cannot love those who bear God’s image and likeness if we don’t love God. Loving God is a prerequisite to loving humans more fully and sincerely. 

The Relentless Widow: She is an exemplar for our prayer life. Despite knowing the odds, she profoundly believes that she will get help. Her unwavering faith is what we need to inherit. If she did not give up even though she was dealing with an unjust judge, how confident should we remain because we are asking of a loving God? She helps us stay rooted in our relationship with God through prayer. 

In sum, Jesus wants us to persevere in prayer because we are praying to a loving God. If we have this motivation, then prayer will be our first option and not our final resort.

The readings of the day leave behind some sharp and powerful insights. 

1. If Moses had his hands raised in prayer, we are called to raise our hearts in prayer. Because prayer is a relationship, it is honored through a heart-level communion with God.

2. Evangelization is protecting the integrity of God’s message. A relativist mindset would forget that we are human tools employed by God to proclaim His Word. We must stay away from the temptation of corrupting God’s message with our own opinions, likes, or dislikes. 

3. We pray not because we are good, but because God is good. In other words, the merits of our prayer depend on God the giver and not on our worth or goodness as receivers. 

Let us ask for the grace to hold our hearts in prayer, trusting in the eternal goodness of God. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar