29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In this country, famous athletic coaches have been thought to be able to alter wind directions or make the rain stop for their teams’ advantages.
In our First Reading we have a picture of the head coach of Team Israel, Moses, who is seen praying over his warriors. Moses, for his part, will be praying up on the rim of the stadium. As long as his arms were raised in supplication God gave Israel the better of it.
Immediately before these verses, the people of Israel have been grumbling and wondering. They are in the desert and thirsty, because there is no water. They want to know if God is with them or not. It is a long time of mutual testing. God is probing the faith of Israel and Israel is testing God’s fidelity.
God proves faithful by presenting a “rock” which when struck does produce a kind of saving water. This place then was named “Massah” and “Meribah” which names mean “test” and “argument.” Israel was honest about their thirst and complained. God remained faithful to their grumbling prayer.
In the Gospel for today we are offered one of the two parables of this chapter, both dealing with prayer. This seems to be a rather simple parable about how we should keep asking; pounding on God’s door and eventually we will get what we want. This parable is directed to the disciples who are slowly getting to understand that prayer, or persistence in asking, is more than saying words or having thoughts.
The disciples are learning through this parable that their lives of fidelity are a form of prayer or relationship with God. Waiting, hoping watching, and longing, are parts of any loving relationship. My prayer is my fidelity to the process of God’s converting my heart. So it is a battle, but God is like famous athletic coaches have been thought to be able to alter wind directions or make the rain stop for their teams’ advantages.