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Aston Martin DB5,
Released in 1963, the DB series was named after Sir David Brown (the owner of Aston Martin from 1947 to 1972). This model is the best-known cinematic James Bond car, first appearing in the James Bond film Goldfinger
© Photo courtesy of Petrolicious |
Jesus told his disciples a parable about the need to pray continually and never lose heart. ‘There was a judge in a certain town’ he said ‘who had neither fear of God nor respect for man. In the same town there was a widow who kept on coming to him and saying, “I want justice from you against my enemy!” For a long time he refused, but at last he said to himself, “Maybe I have neither fear of God nor respect for man, but since she keeps pestering me I must give this widow her just rights, or she will persist in coming and worry me to death.”’
And the Lord said ‘You notice what the unjust judge has to say? Now will not God see justice done to his chosen who cry to him day and night even when he delays to help them? I promise you, he will see justice done to them, and done speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find any faith on earth?’ |
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| | Reflection on the Classic Car
In case we would miss the point of the parable of today, Jesus, before telling us the actual parable clearly states the essence of the Parable of the Unjust Judge: ‘the need to pray continually and never lose heart’. To put this into context, Jesus knows that soon He will be judged, executed and die for us on the Cross. So in our reading of today, he is directly encouraging us to pray continually until He comes back. Then going towards the very end of our reading, the last sentence mentions ‘when the Son of Man comes, will he find any faith on earth?’, He means that when He comes back, will He find you and me praying? Or will we have lost heart by then and given up? It is a direct invitation for us to pray and continue to pray in that period of Jesus’ First coming and His Second coming which may come at any time.
The implication of what Jesus is telling us seems to be: prayer and faith go hand in hand together. Faith and prayer stand and fall together! If faith is the car that take us to our destination, then prayer is the fuel that feeds the engine. One can’t go without the other.
If I may push the car analogy a little further (and that is why today I am using this image of a Classic Car, works of art in themselves, going beyond the pure utilitarian and creating beauty in every day objects that get used). Just like with Classic Cars there is a nostalgia to the old cars, craving the classic. Similar in a way to many friends who crave for a classic Christianity, admiring older models that reflected a time of greater clarity or certainty - or so we think. But everything evolves, everything moves on, and so with the Church, ‘Ecclesia semper reformanda’, the Church always moving forward and renewing. As members of our Church we too must continually pray and help the Church with her mission… In return, the Church will provide us with the fuel for our own faith journeys, to get us to our end destinations: God itself.
Released in 1963, this Aston Martin DB5 (the DB series was named after Sir David Brown (the owner of Aston Martin from 1947 to 1972) is the best-known cinematic James Bond car, first appearing in the James Bond film Goldfinger.
by Patrick van der Vorst |  | |
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