One by one they were rescued. First it was Florencio Avalos, followed by Mario Sepulveda Espina and it continued until Luis Alberto Urzua was the 33rd and final miner rescued. After 69 days trapped more than 2,000 feet below the surface of the earth, the world watched persistence pay off as one by one the Chilean miners were rescued. Using a tiny capsule, the men were lifted to safety, after first insisting that each one should go last. But we forget that this story did not begin this week with the heroic rescue. First, there was the accident, followed by 17 days of uncertainty; were the men dead or alive? Should we drill a rescue shaft? Would prayers be answered? With determination and perseverance the rescue workers began drilling not one, but three rescue shafts. Family and friends, as well as an entire nation if not the world, began to pray. They gathered near the site of the disaster and prayed, celebrated Mass, held devotions and invoked the help of St. Lawrence, Deacon & Martyr.
The good people of the mining community of Chile, decidedly Catholic, knew that St. Lawrence is the patron saint of miners. Why miners? Before St. Lawrence’s well known martyrdom, he worked in service to the earliest believers below ground in the Roman catacombs. A statue of St. Lawrence never left the campsite as a reminder of his prayerful intercession.
And then there is the story of another persistent fellow with connections to the diaconate. A Houston man named Greg Hall, who owns a drilling company, played a pivotal role in the eventual rescue of the miners. Greg Hall is just about one year away from being ordained as a Catholic Deacon. He should know a thing or two about perseverance just from the rigors of formation.
We have all experienced moments of perseverance in our lives. We persevere in school, our careers, our relationships, following our dreams and reaching for our goals.
As people of faith, do we persevere in prayer? Do we persevere in our relationship with Jesus?
Jesus teaches us once again by means of a parable with only two characters; an unjust judge and a persistent widow. The judge in this reading would have been a Roman magistrate; a judge for hire. He would be notorious, quick to make a deal or take a bribe. Perhaps this is why even in the parable we hear the judge declare he neither fears God or respects man. The widow is the representative for all those who are poor, defenseless; those who often are taken advantage of. Yet this poor widow is persistent; persistent to the point of the unjust judge giving her what she wants.
And Jesus uses the parable to teach us that His Heavenly Father; our Father, who is rich in justice and mercy, will give us what we need if we persist in prayer. We should be careful here; this is not a bargaining moment nor should we expect the Father to give us only what we want. We have only to look to the example of good parents who certainly would not give a child whatever they ask for; especially if it would lead to their detriment. So it is with God.
And so our prayer life must persevere and our prayers must always conform to the will of the Father. Only God knows what is truly good for us; his children. Only God knows His plan for us in this life and desires to have us share eternal life with Him in the world to come.
How can we persevere in prayer? How can we answer Jesus who asks, will He find faith on earth? We can assess today both the quantity and quality of our prayer life? Do we pray daily? Do we pray throughout the day? Do we actively participate in the shared responses of the prayers of the Mass? Do we promise to pray for someone only to forget to do so?
What about our prayers? Do we bargain with God in prayer? Do we ask for only those things that we want or those things that will make us happy? And are we prepared to follow God’s will in what those answers to the pray will be?
To reflect on these questions can we pray with this Scripture in the week ahead? Read again the efforts of the widow who causes that judge to grant her request. Can we reflect on the perseverance of both those miners, who endured 69 days trapped below and those who fought every day to bring them to freedom and safety.
The 9th miner rescued from that underground tomb is Mario Gomez, the eldest of the group and the man who became the spiritual leader. It was his request for rosaries, prayer cards and statues as he built a shrine and led the men in prayer, every day, several times a day. And it was Mario Gomez who as his feet touched ground as he left that rescue capsule hit his knees, arms outstretched, almost like Moses in our 1st reading, as he prayed in thanksgiving.
May we persevere in prayer like the example of perseverance in the rescue of miners in Chile!
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