Training in Righteousness

29^th Sunday of Ordinary Time year C 2019:

St. Paul tells Timothy today about the importance of the Scriptures.  Not only can they teach us about Jesus Christ, but the scriptures are helpful for teaching, refutation, correction, and, my favorite, “training in righteousness.”  I love this phrase: training in righteousness.  I like the idea that the Christian life is a life of training.  Why?  It means no matter where we are along the journey, we should just keep plugging along.  We are in training.  We haven’t finished anything.  We can keep on working, growing, changing, improving.  I find this concept of training extremely hopeful and encouraging.  Let’s keep up the training.

Today’s gospel gives us something to think about as we are training in righteousness.  Today Jesus gives us another parable and another example.  Yet, this is not really an example of someone we should follow or imitate.  He gives us the example of an unjust judge.  Even this man would render a just decision because of the badgering of the widow.  We had a similar situation a couple of weeks ago.  Do you remember the parable of the dishonest steward?  Remember, he was getting fired so he made deals with the master’s debtors as a way to find a place where he could go once the master got rid of him. 

Normally, when we hear the preaching and parables of Jesus, he gives us amazing examples that we want to emulate.  Think about last week, we heard about the Samaritan who was healed and gave thanks.  He was a good example for us to give thanks to God for all his blessings.  Or think about the Good Samaritan who took care of the man who fell in with robbers.  He was a good example of mercy and kindness toward one’s neighbor.  Think of the parable of the prodigal son.  He was a good example of a man who recognized he was a sinner, but had the courage to return to the Father’s loving embrace.

Yes, all of these are good examples.  But, what do we do with the dishonest steward or the unjust judge?  Jesus gives them to us as examples as well.  Only these are not positive examples.  Rather, these are negative examples, but they teach us important lessons.  

Isn’t this the way that life goes too?  I approach life with these two rules in mind.  Everyone is an example and every experience can teach us something.  We can learn from everyone and everything.  We want to emulate the qualities of good people or good experiences.  But, when we encounter bad people or bad experiences, we can learn from these things too. 

This is not always the easiest thing to do in reality.

Yet, everyone is an example.  Think of a painful experience you had in your life.  Now think: what can I learn from that experience?  Sometimes it’s very basic: I promise never to do or say something like that in my own life.  It is definitely the case that all of us will experience sadness and pain in our lives.  But, do we let it beat us down?  Or do we let it build us up?  Everyone is an example.  Every experience can teach us something.  

Jesus uses the unjust judge to teach us to be persistent in prayer.  By doing so he is reminding us that even our negative and painful experiences in life can truly open for us pathways to grace and goodness.  This is not easy.  This process requires the ability to open our hearts and minds to Christ in the midst of our pain.  All scripture can help us to train in righteousness and so can our experiences.  If we have the right perspective then everyone is an example and every experience can teach us something, even our pain and difficulties.  Let’s ask the lord to help us to train in righteousness through his words and example and from the people and experiences we have in our lives.  Lord, help us in our training in righteousness.