We heard in our first reading that Amalek came and waged war against Israel, and we are used to the waging of war, both in the Bible and the news, are we not? What we are not told is that Israel had just invaded them, so the waging of war is perhaps a slight exaggeration. The biblical scholars tell us that Amalek was a nomadic tribe that lived on the borderlands between the desert and the Promised Land, rather like Cumbria between Scotland and Lancashire. It’s not hard to imagine why the sudden arrival of Israel in their territory might have concerned these people. Where resources are scarce, a new competitor represents an existential threat to the community, as we are told daily by Nigel Farage and other people who are profiting out of the current situation. It is not surprising, then, given the circumstances, that the Amalekites might try and drive Israel away before the people of God could establish themselves and it is, anyway, their land, a fact which the reading today seems to forget.

Over the centuries, Christian and Jewish thinkers have perceived a deeper significance to Amalek’s ancient struggle with Israel. As the first enemy to attack the Israelite people after their escape from slavery in Egypt, Amalek came to be understood as a symbol or a sign of every enemy of God’s people, every danger, force, idea, or group that might seek the destruction of God’s children. Thus our first reading has been understood to recount more than just a fight between competing nomadic tribes in the desert: it is an image of a more profound struggle between the People of God and the forces of evil that seek our destruction both communally and individually. Who owns land? Whose earth is it? Where is God in the movement of peoples?

It is significant, then, that our first reading describes Moses sending a young man named Joshua, son of Nun, to lead Israel into battle. The English names ‘Joshua’ and ‘Jesus’ are in fact different versions of the same name in Hebrew: ‘Yeshua’ was a common alternative to ‘Yehoshua’. Indeed, the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew bible which was very familiar to so many of the first Christians even translates Joshua’s name as ‘Iesous’ – ‘Jesus’. The first Greek speaking Christians would therefore have read this text and seen that a man called Jesus led Israel into battle against Amalek; a man called Jesus overcame this first enemy of Israel that was a symbol of all that is evil; and a man called Jesus symbolically anticipated the victory of Jesus Christ over sin and death on the cross. Jesus (Joshua) son of Nun conquered Amalek, the symbol of all that is evil in a battle in the desert, the symbol of those who stood in the way of the people and therefore plan of God. Jesus, Son of Mary, Son of God conquered the reality of evil through his death, resurrection and ascension. Jesus Christ conquered not just ‘Amalek’, a symbol of evil, but sin and death itself. The movement of peoples was and is here irrelevant, what mattered and matters is our relationship with God which not only transcends, here, time and the borders of nations, but indeed life itself. Any Christian people will see salvation and eternity first and other matters second. This victory of Christ is shared with us through our Baptism, and yet it is at the same time still to be fully accomplished in our lives. Jesus Christ has given us the victory, yet for now we still find ourselves in a struggle against the sin of the world and our most powerful weapon in this fight is prayer.

We heard in our first reading that the first Jesus, Joshua, gains the upper hand in the battle against the Amalekites as long as Moses prayed with his arms stretched out in the sign of the cross. In our Gospel reading, the widow never tired of demanding justice from the unjust judge and so she too was ultimately vindicated. Both readings point us to the utmost importance of persevering in prayer. If our life is a struggle, we must know that in Jesus the victory has already been won. To be in the struggle is to be winning the struggle because we rely not on our own strength but on the cross of Christ. As long as our hands are raised in prayer, then in this life or the next we will share in Christ’s victory, raising of flags might make people cheer, raising of prayers might unite us to heaven, where there is no borderland, just eternity with God or without Him. Jesus’s listeners would have known the prophets and the law, at least vaguely, and within both, justice for orphans and widows and the strangers in our land (as one day we will be in His) in particular was a constant theme. So a good judge, for Jesus’s listeners would have been one like God who judges well, and with mercy. This is our faith.

Prayer, given that we naturally are social beings and are redeemed as a new people should involve the prayer of the Christian community, part of our daily living. If our work, family life or leisure are not done in humility, compassion, integrity and the seeking of true peace, then we will find it difficult to set aside moments of prayer. To pray constantly is to live a Christian life humbly before God, seeking to love our neighbours as ourselves. By doing this, our will becomes aligned with the divine will and our prayer is constant. This is faith on earth. Put up the flags of faith to let people know that we are a people of love, and prayer, and faith.