Homily, 3-20-23; Monday of the 7th Week in Ordinary Time:
I found today’s gospel passage to be slightly confusing. It seems simple on the surface, but raises a lot of questions. Jesus has just come down from the mountain after His transfiguration and we hear: “Immediately on seeing him, the whole crowd was utterly amazed.” Why were they amazed? Some of the Church fathers conjecture that the people were amazed because Jesus’ countenance had become more beautiful from His transfiguration. But we don’t know for sure.
And then we hear Jesus say: “What are you arguing about with them?” Who is you? Who is them? Theophylactus, a Greek patriarch commented: “And when he came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude about them, and the Scribes questioning with them. For the Pharisees, catching the opportunity of the hour when Christ was not present, came up to them, to try to draw them over to themselves.” In other words, when the cat’s away, the mice will play.
But the main question, and focus of today’s gospel, is one of faith. Faith is needed for miraculous healings to take place. The question is whether it is the faith of the healer, or the faith of the one asking for healing, that is necessary. We can be quick to judge the disciples and blame their inability to cast out the demon on their lack of faith. But it becomes more clear that the main cause was the lack of faith of the people. The scribes were trying to prey on the peoples’ doubts, and use the inability of the disciples to attack claims of Jesus’ power.
But Jesus comes and sets things straight. He calls out the father of the young possessed man for his lack of faith. The father says to Jesus: “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” It expresses doubt about Jesus’ power. We can contrast that statement with that of the leper that asked to be healed. He said: “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” He had complete faith in Jesus’ power. In our New American Bible translation that we use at Mass, Jesus gives the father a fairly harsh rebuke: “If you can! Everything is possible to one who has faith.” complete with an exclamation mark. The Douay-Rheims translation is a little more gentle: “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.”
The father’s response is a simple prayer that is often on my lips as I struggle with my faith, as I try to convince my heart to believe what I already believe in my mind. “I do believe, help my unbelief!” With this statement of faith, Jesus quickly cast out the demon before the large crowd could gather. And then He once again demonstrated His compassion and took the young man by the hand and raised him up.
Later, when He was alone with the disciples, they questioned Him about why they couldn’t cast out the demon as they had in the past. Jesus answered: “This kind can only come out through prayer.” Other versions of this verse say, “through prayer and fasting.” True prayer requires complete faith and trust in God’s power acting in Jesus’ name. Fasting gives strength to our prayer and is, in a way, a testimony to our faith. It is easy to ask for help from someone on the chance they can help. It is different asking for help from someone who you know can help. It might be good, at times, when people ask us to pray for them, to ask them if they truly believe in the power of our prayers. Or, are they asking because it is just a simple thing to do on the off chance that our prayers can make a difference.
In a commentary put together by St. Thomas Aquinas, I ran across a quote attributed to a writer identified as Pseudo-Jerome. He commented: “The folly which is connected with the softness of the flesh, is healed by fasting; anger and laziness are healed by prayer. Each wound has its own medicine, which must be applied to it; that which is used for the heel will not cure the eye; by fasting, the passions of the body, by prayer, the plagues of the soul, are healed.”
We start Lent in a couple of days, a time when we are called to combine our prayer and our fasting, along with almsgiving, acts of mercy. St. Peter Chrysologus stated that they cannot be separated. I would like to leave you with his words: “There are three things, my brethren, by which faith stands firm, devotion remains constant, and virtue endures. They are prayer, fasting and mercy. Prayer knocks at the door, fasting obtains, mercy receives. Prayer, mercy and fasting: these three are one, and they give life to each other. Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. Let no one try to separate them; they cannot be separated.”