OMELIE / Omelie EN

19 ott 2025

19/10/2025 - 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

19/10/2025 - 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

First Reading Ex 17:8-13 from Psalm 120 Second Reading 2 Tim 3:14 - 4:2 Gospel Lk 18:1-8

The Scriptures are a source of wisdom, a never-ending school for believers. St Paul tells us that it is “inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work”. We must therefore never tire of listening to it, meditating on it, seeking it with a desire always burning to be imbued with its wisdom. It is the Scripture that keeps us steadfast in our faith in Christ Jesus, the true and only Saviour, the only inspirer of that love which makes human life beautiful and worth living. It is not possible for Christians to live without constant reference to Scripture. And this, says the apostle, “from infancy”. It is the faith in Jesus that saves us, but it is through the Scriptures that we know him, and it is through the Scriptures that we learn to understand his teachings: he himself makes constant reference to those holy pages every time he opens his mouth to speak to his disciples and the crowds.

How precious, for example, is the page that today shows us Moses in prayer, seated on a rock with his hands raised, supported by his two most distinguished helpers.

The people was going through a difficult time: it was antagonised and fought against by powerful enemies. Instead of raising the sword to help the people in battle, Moses grabs his staff, a symbol of his obedience to God and of the power he has received from him. He stands on the mountain all day with his hands raised to the sky. For the people, he is a sign that everything depends on God, even the outcome of everyone's efforts. It is God who grants victory, who brings fruit to the efforts of men. Even the bravest men would fight in vain if God did not intervene. In recent days, we have commemorated three important moments for Christianity, similar to that experienced by Moses and his people: the siege of Belgrade in 1456, the battle of Lepanto in 1571 and the siege of Vienna in 1683. Each time, prayer was fundamental, prayer that saw the raised hands of St John of Capistrano, Pope St Pius V and Blessed Marco d'Aviano, respectively.

We are impressed when we see Moses' raised hands, and we understand: what will be the outcome of our efforts, the effort of our struggle against evil, any evil, if there is no one to intercede, to pray to God, to remind us that everything depends on the Father's love?

Our enemy is so powerful that he could overwhelm us at any moment. The raised hands of people who are obedient to God, who live by the faith in Jesus, his Son, are our support, our certainty that we can win every battle despite our weakness. Now that we have learned true prayer from Jesus, we are charged with standing on the mountain with our hands raised.

Our prayer and obedience to God sustain and defend the world, which is always in danger. With the parable in the story from the Gospel, the Lord himself recommends that we should not tire of bringing our prsyers to him. Our insistence is not a sign of God's weakness, but a declaration that we have no one else to hope in, and a sign that our faith is true, firm and steadfast. It is also a proclamation that we believe that God has the wisdom to intervene at the best time and to grant our requests in the best way.

Our prayer is an expression and manifestation of the faith that God himself would like to see present in every corner of the earth.

“When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” We can certainly answer with a resounding ‘yes’: yes, faith will be there, because I believe, I will continue to believe, and I will continue to pray. The whole Church will continue, with the help of my brothers and sisters, to help me keep my hands raised, so that the enemy of humanity may not prevail over the Church. I myself will support the raised hands of my brothers and sisters, and together we will uphold the whole world, which will receive salvation from the Lord.

Listening to the Scriptures and praying are the pillars of the world. As long as there are people who, with perseverance, keep listening and praying going, we cannot and must not be afraid.

I am not just content to know that there are those who listen to the Word and those who pray to the Father: I myself want to be a guardian and devourer of the Scriptures, and an architect of prayer, of that prayer in which God the Father can smell the fragrance of the obedient and affectionate love!