Only with prayer!

Mark 9:14-29

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."