Monday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
The first book that I ever read was “Green Eggs and Ham” by Dr. Seuss. I remember struggling with certain words and my mom patiently and lovingly reminding me to “sound it out.” But sometimes I found a word to be too challenging and my mom would eventually step in and say the word that was too difficult for me to read on my own. And as much as I honestly needed her help, in the stubbornness of a young child, I told her “Don’t tell me the word, Mom! I can do it on my own!” So, in my frustration, I would start the book over with the very first sentence. I would start over because my mentality was, “If I needed help, I didn’t really read the entire book all the way through.” I wanted to do it on my own! I recall going through two or three iterations of me obviously needing help, my mom helping me, and then starting the book over because I didn’t do it on my own. Eventually I finished the book without assistance, but many years later I find myself sometimes struggling with the same problem. No, I don’t struggle with reading “Green Eggs and Ham.” At 26 years old, I’ve mastered it. But I do struggle sometimes with admitting that I need assistance and I am often not ready to humble myself or show weakness. I sometimes still want to do it on my own.
In today’s Gospel reading from Mark, we read the story of a young boy possessed by a mute spirit. Attempting to drive the spirit out of the boy, the disciples find themselves to be incapable on their own. Only through the intervention of God in the Person of Jesus and the faith of the boy’s father is the son able to be healed. As much as they wanted to, the disciples found that they could not do it on their own. And after much effort on the part of the disciples, it was evident that only through an encounter with Jesus Himself would actual healing take place. Jesus later instructs the first disciples that, “This kind can only come out through prayer." As prayerful disciples ourselves, when we think of prayer as union with the very heart of God or as what the Catechism describes as the “gaze of faith, fixed on Jesus” (CCC 2715), we begin to realize that, no matter what the situation, we simply cannot do it on our own without Jesus.
With God, all things are possible and without Him, nothing is possible. Nothing could be truer. However, this is not to say that we should stand on the sidelines of grace. Rather, Jesus greatly desires that we, as His disciples, be participants in His plan for salvation and coworkers in His love, His mercy, His healing, and His grace. In this light, Jesus asks in today’s Gospel, “How long will I be with you?” For instance, I can read on my own now (and thank goodness for that!), but I can only attribute that to the physical presence and intervention of my mom when I was small. I didn’t realize it at the time, but throughout my childhood my parents were giving me the skill sets to be able to live on my own one day. Similarly, Jesus is preparing the disciples to live in the world following His Ascension into Heaven. Every Mass, after we share in the physical presence of Christ in the Eucharist, we too are called to go out into the world and be Christ alive in the world! This is our “Ite Missa Est!”
Even the Father of the possessed boy in today’s Gospel reading is called to participate in the healing power of God through his faith. Jesus reminds tells him, "'If you can!' Everything is possible to one who has faith." In honesty and humility, he replies, in my opinion, with some of the most beautiful words in Scripture by crying out, “"I do believe, help my unbelief!" A contradiction by some standards, I believe this statement to be a perfect profession of his faith! Because he realized, regardless of his own effort, that even his own faith was a gift from God! One of my favorite songs right now is a song called “Let Me Feel You Shine” by the David Crowder Band. In it, my favorite lyric reads “What I need is for You to be the thing that I need.” Simply put, we need to need God. We need to believe that he will help us believe. We often can’t do it on our own.
St. James in today’s first reading describes the proper attitude and mentality that we should have with respect to our participation in the grace of God. He says, “do not boast” and “let him show his works by a good life in the humility that comes from wisdom.” In other words, we must remain humble and aware that it is only through Jesus and His grace that we may produce good works. As Catholics, we are taught that we cannot earn grace or salvation. The Catechism points out, “With regard to God, there is no strict right to any merit on the part of man.” (CCC 2007) Yet, “God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace.” (CCC 2008) We do not earn or merit grace, we live grace! To live grace requires effort on our part, but we cannot do it on our own.
How often in our lives do we find ourselves facing hardship, sickness, despair, or caught in the middle of a seemingly hopeless situation, still thinking that we can get out of our mess on our own? Today, in humility, let us confess our dependency on Jesus- His love, His grace, His truth, His forgiveness, and most importantly His work on the cross. And let us pray that as prayerful disciples we may stay fixed on Jesus as we strive to be ambassadors to the Kingdom and coworkers in His grace. Jesus, we need you! We cannot do it on our own. Amen.
- Ryan J. Mahle