Monday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

"Mystery But Not Magic"

Today we find a number of provocative remarks in Mark’s account of the cure of the mute boy. There is the exasperation of Jesus with unbelief; there’s the little exchange about “if you can” (Mark 9:22). There are the famous words of the father, “I do believe, help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). Today let us stay with the final words of Jesus to His disappointed disciples: “This kind can only come out through prayer” (Mark 9:29).

We don’t require that Jesus engage in prayer every time He performs an exorcism or healing; after all, He is in direct communion with the power of God. But there may well be the implication here that the reason the disciples were ineffective in exorcising the mute and deaf spirit is that they were taking for granted powers that rightfully belonged only to God. It may well be a warning to ministers of religion against an automatic approach to the dispensing of God’s grace in the sacraments and in the liturgy.

We mortal humans can only cooperate with the power of God doing good in our world if we realize that we are dependent on God and that we demonstrate that by honest and sincere prayer. Without prayer on our part, the rituals of our faith tradition come off as magic. And the lesson is relevant for all of us in the exercise of our faith: nothing is automatic. God depends on and uses our effort, our dependence and our trust. And the serious projects and concerns of our lives, despite all the human means available, still depend on God for their success and accomplishment. No matter what sophisticated techniques we bring to some difficulty in an individual relationship or in a group, these matters should be entrusted confidently to God’s loving care in and through prayer.