Monday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
(Sirach 1:1-10; Mark 9:14-29)
The story is told of President Abraham Lincoln taking a
walk in the woods one night weighing a difficult decision. A group of Union soldiers were to be executed
for falling asleep on duty unless he gave them a pardon. Along the path Lincoln met an adolescent on
the ground crying. The lad had run away
from home after his father in a rage killed his dog. The father had just learnt that his older son
was to be executed for cowardice and couldn’t control his rage. Lincoln
counseled the boy to go home and forgive his father; meanwhile, he said, he
would do some forgiving himself. The
President also gave the boy his card with a note saying that he might visit him
at the White House anytime. The boy went
home and made up with his father. When
he found out that his brother’s crime was falling asleep on duty, he went
straight to the White House and took a seat outside President Lincoln’s
office. At the end of the day, the boy
gave the President’s secretary the card he had received and told him he had an
important matter to discuss with Mr. Lincoln.
The boy was shown in, told Lincoln what happened to his brother, and
heard the President promise to add his brother’s name to the list of those
soldiers who would be receiving Presidential pardons.
Just like the boy sitting in the shadow of the President,
the man in the gospel whose son has an epileptic spirit does not recognize
Jesus for whom he is. He sees Jesus as a
human healer, not the son of God whose prayer to his heavenly Father is
invariably answered. When Jesus
questions the man’s faith, he responds with the cry that has echoed in every
Christian’s heart, “’I do believe, help my unbelief.’” Jesus demands no more than that painful
request and, indeed, does help the man to believe in him by driving the demon from
his son. We likewise should bring to
Jesus all our needs. He will help us if
we can honestly say with the epileptic’s father, “I do believe, help…”
