29TH Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C, 2025

Faith: Curing the Human Appetite for War
Exodus 17:8–13; 2 Timothy 3:14–4:2; Luke 18:1–8
How does one preach a homily on a reading where God seems to take sides in a war? Our first reading tells us God fought for Israel… and ordered the destruction of the Amalekites? What do we do with that? Because if we take that literally — if we stop right there — then the God of Exodus begins to look like the same God people invoke today to justify genocide, invasion, or massacre. Can God — the Creator of life — take pleasure in death? Can the God who saves also destroy?
To distance God from our wars, our first reading provides a clue: the very name “Joshua” means “God saves.” But it leaves us asking: Who does God save? From whom? And why? The first reading seems to show a God of battle, but faith invites us to look deeper — to search for the God of life hidden behind the smoke of war.
The Gospel Corrects the ambiguity that one may see in the first reading — From War (first reading) to Justice (Gospel). When we turn to the Gospel, everything changes: no army, and no sword. No banners or battle cries, just a widow —a powerless, nameless woman— standing before an unjust judge, who “neither feared God nor respected any human being.” The indifference to God and human beings is the recipe for every war in human history: no fear of God, no respect for life.
Yet this same godless man — this proud judge — is conquered, not by force, but by the persistence of a woman who refuses to give up. Her weapon is not the sword. It is faith — faith expressed through prayer,
through the relentless pursuit of justice. And here the Gospel gives us a correction to the first reading: God is not the One who fights wars on our behalf. God is the One who teaches us how to end them. Victory is no longer over enemies — it is over indifference. It is over injustice. It is over the violence that begins in the human heart.
Faith is not just believing that God exists. Faith is believing that people can change. Faith is trusting that the unjust can become just, that the cold heart can warm again, that prayer can still awaken conscience. The widow’s persistence transformed her judge. She defeated him — not by humiliation, but by conversion. If a man who neither feared God nor respected humanity could be moved by persistence, imagine what would happen if those who do believe in God and do respect human beings
prayed and acted with that same faith!
War begins where faith ends — when we stop believing that life is sacred, that hearts can be changed, that good can still overcome evil. Faith restores that vision. Faith reminds us that justice is nothing less than this: What is good for the goose must be good for the gander. The protection of every life, because every life matters to God.
The human heart and contemporary society are the battle grounds for today’s wars, not Israel versus Amalek. And so the battle of Israel and Amalek is not ancient history. It happens every day — inside each of us.
There is no more “Israel versus Amalek.” There is only the battle within:
between trust and fear, between prayer and despair, between the desire for peace and the temptation to fight back.
Moses’ raised hands, in the first reading, become an image of our own perseverance in prayer. And when his hands grow heavy, Aaron and Hur stand beside him — steadying his arms, keeping faith alive. We all need our own Aaron and Hur — friends, family, community — to hold us up when our faith weakens. That is how Joshua — “God saves” — continues to work today: not by striking down our enemies but by saving us from ourselves — from hatred, bitterness, and the lust for power.
Faith must become persistent goodness: Saint Paul says to Timothy,
“All Scripture is inspired by God — useful for teaching, for correction, for training in righteousness.” Even the hard passages — even the violent ones — can teach us if we read them through the eyes of faith. They teach us to see the good that still lives in others. They remind us that the Word of God is not a weapon — it is a medicine. It cures the human appetite for war.
Paul tells us, “Be persistent — whether convenient or inconvenient. Convince, reprimand, encourage with all patience and teaching.” That’s the same persistence we saw in the widow. The same faith that Jesus praises. The same endurance Moses needed on the hilltop. Let our faith, like that of the widow, bring justice, mercy, and transformation — not by conquering others, but by winning hearts back to God. Because faith — true faith — is the only cure for the human appetite for war.
 Assignment for the Week :
This week — choose one person who needs conversion. Maybe someone who has hurt you. Maybe someone you’ve given up on. Pray for them — every day of the week.

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