Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 147

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?"

The English word machine comes from the French machine meaning a device or contrivance. It may also be a trick or ploy. A dramatic machine might refer to the plot contrivances that move the story, giving plausibility to a series of unlikely events. Today we use the word almost exclusively for complicated power tools with many moving parts.

Machinery also serves as a metaphor for many mysterious systems. Plants might be carbon machines and animals might be organic machines. The brain is supposed to be a wonderful thinking machine, still superior to the ultimate non-organic machine, the computer.

In thrall of these mechanical systems, we want other systems to work like machines. Several years ago voters enacted a set of laws called “Three strikes and you’re out.” Although the metaphor was from baseball, the legal system was supposed to act with the same blind impulse as machinery. A man who has been twice convicted of felony will be automatically imprisoned for the rest of his life when he is convicted a third time. Judges are not trusted to make any other decision in such cases.

Predictably, the law has been a disaster. State prisons are over-crowded with harmless old men and women. The same voters who enacted these blind rules blindly refuse to provide adequate housing, security and health care for the lifers.  Systems of law, regarded as machinery, inevitably break down.

When Jesus urged us to pray he didn’t know about machinery and automatic penalties. He saw that every human system is fundamentally human. The intransigence of corrupt judges can be overcome by persistent old women, even when the plaintiffs might not have a strong case. The simple cry of “Give me my rights,” sounded against one’s bedroom window day and night can un-buy a bought magistrate. When he spoke of prayer Jesus urged us to pray persistently because “The Lord hears the cry of the poor.”

Given our predilection for machines, some people speak of God like a Huge Machine. God is a mindless force, or energy or power. “May the Force be with you!” they say. Or, “Good luck!” which amounts to the same thing. They fail to notice the person and presence of God. When they read a story like the one we heard today from the Book of Exodus, they suppose Moses’ staff was magical. Didn’t it turn into a snake, eat all the other snakes, and split the Red Sea? But magic, in the real world, is a trick, a contrivance.

Atheism believes no one is in charge. The highest intelligence and strongest will in all the universe is the human being. Because machines feel neither sadness nor joy; because they know nothing of generosity, courage or desire none of these emotions and virtues have any real existence. They cannot matter. Only power exists, to make the machine run. In the absence of God, they worship power. May the Force be with you. But if you have three felonies, you’re dead meat.

Christians believe Someone cares. At the heart of all being is the Trinity – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – a superabundant Generosity who cannot be controlled, managed or manipulated. No matter how clever our mindless machines, there remains the unpredictability of a Benevolent, Providential Willing Good.  

Saint Paul stands
his post at Mundelien
Seminary, Illinois

Jesus urges us to approach the One who cannot be controlled, managed or manipulated. The Trinity of God, which is both three and one -- and neither three nor one because numbers mean nothing in God’s reality -- welcomes our prayer. In today’s gospel Jesus pleads with us,

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?"