Do these two parables have the similar meaning?

[MH84]

Can someone tell me what the first parable means and if it is the same or similar message to the one about the unjust judge?

Luke 11:5-13:

{11:5} And he said to them: Which of you shall have a friend and shall go to him at midnight and shall say to him: Friend, lend me three loaves,
{11:6} Because a friend of mine is come off his journey to me and I have not what to set before him.
{11:7} And he from within should answer and say: Trouble me not; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee.
{11:8} Yet if he shall continue knocking, I say to you, although he will not rise and give him because he is his friend; yet, because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
www.sacredbible.org

[Luke 18]
{18:1} And he spoke also a parable to them, that we ought always to pray and not to faint,
{18:2} Saying: There was a judge in a certain city, who feared not God nor regarded man.
{18:3} And there was a certain widow in that city; and she came to him, saying: Avenge me of my adversary.
{18:4} And he would not for a long time. But afterwards he said within himself: Although I fear not God nor regard man,
{18:5} Yet because this widow is troublesome to me, I will avenge her, lest continually coming she weary me.
{18:6} And the Lord said: Hear what the unjust judge saith.
{18:7} And will not God revenge his elect who cry to him day and night? And will he have patience in their regard?
{18:8} I say to you that he will quickly revenge them. But yet the Son of man, when he cometh, shall he find, think you, faith on earth?

 

[NotWorthy]

I’d post both of these parables under the “Persistence of Prayer” category.

 

[thistle]

The DR Haydock commentary:

Luke11:

Ver. 5. This parable is not found in any one of the evangelists, except St. Luke. Our Saviour having taught his disciples the aforesaid form of prayer, now shews them the utility and efficacy of prayer in general. He wishes to inculcate the necessity of perseverance in prayer. A friend comes to borrow of another friend at an unseasonable hour; his request is refused; he insists, and obtains, by his perseverance, what he could not have gained without it. Thus also the Almighty wishes to be importuned; he wishes us to pray with zeal and perseverance. this is the model we ought to follow. (Calmet) — God would not exhort us so earnestly to pray, unless he was ready to grant our petitions. Let us blush at our sloth: he is more ready to give than we are to receive. (St. Augustine)

Ver. 8. After our Saviour had given his apostles this form of prayer, knowing that men would recite it with remissness and negligence, and then on account of not being heard, would desist, he teaches here to avoid this pusillanimity in prayer; perseverance in our petitions being the most advantageous. (St. Cyril in St. Thomas Aquinas)

Ver. 9. Our petitions are frequently not immediately granted, that our earnestness and assiduity may be increased; that we may learn to esteem the gifts of God, and preserve them with care, for whatever we procure with labour, we preserve with care, lest by losing it we lose our labour also. (St. Basil in Con. Mon.)

Ver. 10. How comes it to pass then, that many pray, and receive not? To this we answer, that if they approach in a proper manner, and observe the necessary conditions of the petition, they will undoubtedly receive what they ask for; but if, on the contrary, they deviate from this rule, and ask not, as they ought, they will not receive; because as St. James says, you ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss. (Chap. i.) By asking for things that are prejudical to your well-being; or, if for spiritual blessings, you do not receive them, on account of your evil motives. (Origen in St. Thomas Aquinas)

Luke 18:

Ver. 1. Always to pray, i.e. to pray daily, and frequently; (Witham) and also to walk always in the presence of God, by a spirit of prayer, love, and sorrow for sin.

Ver. 2. This judge, who feared not God, nor cared for man, yet yielded to the importunity of the widow, represents the absolute and sovereign power of God. But we must not suppose the Almighty has any of the faults we see in this iniquitous judge. Comparisons are not meant to hold good in every particular. The only consequence to be drawn from the present parable, is this: if a man, who has neither piety nor tenderness for his fellow creatures, yield to the importunity of a widow, who is not wearied out with repeating her petitions; how much more will God, who is full of bounty and tenderness to man, and only seek occasions to grant him his gifts, hear the prayers of the fervent, and fill with benedictions the petitioner, who can continue like the widow to importune his interference, and can beg without languor or discouragement? (Calmet)

Ver. 3. Avenge me; i.e. do me justice. It is a Hebraism. (Witham)

Ver. 4. And he would not for a long time. The Almighty does not always hear us as soon as we could wish, nor in the manner that seems best to us; but if we are not always heard according to our desires, we always are as far as is conducive to our salvation. He sometimes delays, in order to exercise our patience, and increase our ardour: sometimes he grants, in his anger, what, in him mercy, he would refuse. Let us then pray always, desire always, love always. Desire always, and you pray always. This is the continual voice of prayer, which the Almighty demands of you. You are silent, when you cease to love. The cooling of charity, is the silence of the heart. (St. Augustine, in Psalm xxxvii.) (Witham)

Ver. 5. She weary me out.[1] This, as much as I am able to find out, seems the literal signification both of the Latin and Greek text. (Witham)

Ver. 8. In the Greek, although he suffer for the present the elect to be oppressed. (Bible de Vence) — Our divine Redeemer adds, this, to shew that faith must necessarily accompany our prayers. For whosoever prays for what he does not believe he shall obtain, will pray in vain; let us, therefore, entreat the Father of mercies to grant us the grace of prayer, and firmness in faith; for faith produces prayer, and prayer produces firmness of faith. (St. Augustine, de verb. Dom. Serm 36.) — But of this there is little left on the earth, and there will be still less at the second coming of the Son of God.

 

[ROBAUTEN]

yes they basically mean the same thing: persistance in prayer. Don’t get bogged down in the details of most parables unless they seem to be directly related to the message such as in the prodigal son or the sower & his seed.