Monday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
“I do believe, help my unbelief!”
Today, we see —once again!— the Lord being approached by people: “They ran up to him and greeted him”, and, at the same time, He is attentive towards them, always sensible to their needs. When He suspects that something happens, he asks and gets interested in the problem.
A man from the crowd intervenes. He is the father of a boy that is seized by an evil spirit: “Teacher, I have brought to you my son possessed by a mute spirit. Wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and becomes rigid” (Mk 9:17-18).
It is terrible what the Devil can do! a creature without charity. —Oh Lord, we must pray! “Deliver us from evil.” It is hard to understand those who still claim there is no Devil nowadays, or even worse, those who render him some type of worship... It is absurd! We should learn a lesson: we cannot play with fire!
“I asked your disciples to drive it out, but they were unable to do so.” (Mk 9:18). When Jesus heard these words, He gets upset. He is annoyed, mostly, for their lack of faith... And they lack of faith because they need to pray more: “This kind can only come out through prayer.” (Mk 9:29).
Prayer is the “intimate” dialogue with God. Saint John Paul II affirmed that “Prayer always brings with it a type of interior hiddenness with Christ in God. Only in this hiddenness do we see the workings of the Holy Spirit.” Practicing a friendly assiduity with Jesus in such an intimate atmosphere of retirement increases our confidence in Him, that is, increases our faith.
But this faith, that can move mountains and drives out the evil spirits (since “everything is possible to one who has faith”) is, above all, a gift from God. In any case, our prayer prepares us to receive this gift. However, we have to beg for this gift: “I do believe, help my unbelief!” (Mk 9:24). Christ's response will not take long!