Monday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 341


Immediately on seeing him,
the whole crowd was utterly amazed.
They ran up to him and greeted him. 


There's a lot of energy in today's gospel from Saint Mark. First we notice the crowd is "utterly amazed" when Jesus and his disciples appear. They have just come down from the Mount of the Transfiguration. The suggestion is that Jesus is glowing like Moses, who had been to the mountain and seen the Lord. This may well have been the emotional high point of Jesus' life. Perhaps it equaled only his baptism in the Jordan. It would be, of course, infinitely surpassed by the Resurrection, but that remains in the indefinite future. 

Jesus' landing back in the banality of this world after the high of the Transfiguration is a hard one. He is greeted by a crowd who want a healing. Or perhaps they only want a spectacle, another sign. 

Worse, the disciples, who should have learned something by now, cannot effect a healing. In chapter 6 he had sent them out on mission with the authority to cast out unclean spirits. They seem to have lost it already. He expresses his exasperation with his disciples and the unruly crowd with,

O faithless generation, how long will I be with you?
How long will I endure you? Bring him to me. 

Finally, he heals the boy, but not before rebuking the child's father, Jesus said to him, “If you can!’ Everything is possible to one who has faith.” 

The story concludes with Jesus withdrawing to "the house." This house seems to appear from time to time in Mark's gospel. It is a place of quiet, rest and private instruction. There he can explain to his disciples, without the fevered rebukes of the earlier hours, "This kind can only come out through prayer.”

As Christians we expect a lot of ourselves and are often disappointed. We cannot drive the demons of sloth, lust, greed, envy and so forth out of our churches, neighborhoods, families or personal life. 

Jesus the Coach assures us, "You can do this!" but it will take much prayer. 

My day in the VA Hospital begins with a half hour in the chapel and the Liturgy of the Hours. There I remember that the Church prays continually, in obedience to Saint Paul's command. If I am not glowing when I leave the chapel, I am better prepared to face the day. 

I don't claim to effect healing but I often see it, especially with those Veterans who have remained faithful to their upbringing. As sick as they might be they find solace in the prayers of the Church, their family and loved ones. Some too are ready to "turn away from sin and live by the Gospel." That is wonderful to behold. 

In the Gospel of Saint Mark we meet Jesus' energetic, sometimes exasperated, determination to save us. Immersed in prayer, we feels his grace delivering us from fire and water.