In our first reading, we encounter Moses overlooking the battle that Israel was waging, lifting his arms in intercessory prayer. The battle goes well when his arms are lifted, but not when his arms are not. It is an image of the importance of persevering prayer, and that sets up our gospel, where we are instructed about the importance and the necessity of praying always, for having a persevering prayer, and in fact a kind of condition for the faith to remain and continue to be present when the Son of Man comes again. In our second reading, we hear a beautiful reminder in St. Paul's letter to Timothy about the unique role of sacred scripture - that all scripture is inspired by God. We want to be open to God's word in our life.
29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Ex 17:8-13; Ps 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8; 2 Tm 3:14-4:2; Lk 18:1-8