Mark 9:14-29
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When Jesus, with
Peter, James and John came down from the mountain and rejoined the disciples,
they saw a large crowd round them and some scribes arguing with them. The
moment they saw him the whole crowd were struck with amazement and ran to greet
him. ‘What are you arguing about with them?’ he asked. A man answered him from
the crowd, ‘Master, I have brought my son to you; there is a spirit of dumbness
in him, and when it takes hold of him it throws him to the ground, and he foams
at the mouth and grinds his teeth and goes rigid. And I asked your disciples to
cast it out and they were unable to.’
‘You faithless
generation’ he said to them in reply. ‘How much longer must I be with you? How
much longer must I put up with you? Bring him to me.’ They brought the boy to
him, and as soon as the spirit saw Jesus it threw the boy into convulsions, and
he fell to the ground and lay writhing there, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked
the father, ‘How long has this been happening to him?’ ‘From childhood,’ he
replied ‘and it has often thrown him into the fire and into the water, in order
to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us.’
‘If you can?’
retorted Jesus. ‘Everything is possible for anyone who has faith.’ Immediately
the father of the boy cried out, ‘I do have faith. Help the little faith I
have!’ And when Jesus saw how many people were pressing round him, he rebuked
the unclean spirit. ‘Deaf and dumb spirit,’ he said ‘I command you: come out of
him and never enter him again.’ Then throwing the boy into violent convulsions
it came out shouting, and the boy lay there so like a corpse that most of them
said, ‘He is dead.’ But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him up, and he
was able to stand.
When he had gone
indoors his disciples asked him privately, ‘Why were we unable to cast it out?’
‘This is the kind’ he answered ‘that can only be driven out by prayer.’
Food for thought!
This is the kind that
can only be driven out by prayer!
According to this
statement of Jesus, there are some things in life that we cannot do by our
efforts. There are things that are just too much for us to accomplish. In other
words, there are things that only God can do. Today's gospel is a reminder of
this fact.
While Jesus was up in
the mountain, down in the valley the disciples were struggling without success.
A man had brought to Jesus his son possessed by devil. As Jesus was not around,
the man asked the disciples to cast it out, AND THEY WERE UNABLE TO.
This incident was
very humbling and embarrassing
to the disciples. They were not able to cast out the
devil; they didn't and couldn't do it. Why? What went wrong? What was missing?
We know from
yesterday's Second Reading that, " No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ unless
he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit." (Ephesians 12:3). In other
words, without the Holy Sprit we cannot even say that Jesus is Lord, let alone
act in his name. Yes, even disciples of Jesus need heavenly empowerment.
In yesterday's First
Reading, we heard that when the disciples "were all filled with the Holy
Spirit, [they] began to speak". It means that before the Holy Spirit came
on them, the disciples could not speak; they were unable to speak just as in
today's gospel reading the same disciples were unable to expel the devil.
Does this sound
familiar? Don't you have situations, issues, problems that just don't go away,
however much you fight and struggle? Despite going to church every Sunday or to
some everyday, despite being a follower of Jesus, Christians are bound to
sometimes fail in their endeavors.
After their failure,
and when they went home, away from the crowd and in private with Jesus,
the disciples revisited the issue; they took their failure to Jesus; they
wanted to know why the kept failing and failing. This is a lesson. We must take
our failures to Jesus; we must tell him in private not only about our successes
but also our failures. And when they spoke to Jesus about their failure, Jesus
told them why they failed.
He said, "This
is the kind that can only be driven out by prayer." In other words, there
are some kinds of problems, some kind of situations in our lives that can only
be conquered with the help from heaven; things that only God can do. This is
what Jesus told the father of the possessed son: "Everything is possible
for anyone who has faith." Yes, everything, not just some things, are
possible with God. This is what St. Paul reminds us in the letter to the
Phillipians, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me." (4:13)
So, as we start this
week, let us remember to call upon heaven when and where we often fail. Let us
bring our struggles to Jesus, and bring Jesus to our struggles. And he will
empower us with the Holy Spirit as he did on Pentecost, "They were all
filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak."
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