'When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?' Sunday Reflections, 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C. World Mission Day

St Francis Xavier, 1701, Andrea Pozzo [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)                                  

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Luke 18:1-8 (Revised StandardVersion – Catholic Edition) 

Jesus told his disciples a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor regarded man; and there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Vindicate me against my adversary.' 

"For a while he refused; but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will vindicate her, or she will wear me out by her continual coming.'" 

And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God vindicate his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

St Thérèse of the Child Jesus [Wikipedia]

St Francis Xavier and St Thérèse of the Child Jesus are the patron saints of missionaries.

I remember vividly the day Father Woods came to our kindergarten school, Stanhope Street, Dublin, probably in 1950, the year I made my First Holy Communion. He was from our parish but was a missionary somewhere in Africa, a place unimaginably far away to me. I don't remember a word he said. He showed us some artifacts and, I think, a de-husked coconut that he probably had bought in Kane's fruit and vegetable store just down the road.

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