7th Week in Ordinary Time

This kind can only come out through prayer. 

Rock climbing can look awfully easy from below.   You just find the next place to grab and then hoist yourself up.   But anyone who has done serious climbing will tell you how challenging it is—especially the higher you go.   One little misstep could be disastrous.   You need to be cautious about every hand grasp and foothold you use.

This is one way to understand the situation faced by the disciples who were not on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus.   While Jesus was away with Peter, James, and John, a man brought his demon-possessed son to the others and begged them to heal him.   For these disciples, it seemed like a simple task:   rebuke the demon just as they had seen Jesus do numerous times before.   But the situation quickly descended into chaos: the disciples got into a shouting match with a group of scribes in front of a crowd of people, while the boy was on the verge of another convulsion and his father was beside himself with desperation.   Somewhere along the line, they took one or two missteps and ended up falling to the ground.

Don’t you sometimes feel like these disciples?   You try to share your faith with a neighbor, only to have it blow up in your face.   Or you offer to pray for an ailing family member, only to be rebuffed in the harshest of terms.   It’s as if you had put your foot in the wrong place and ended up sliding down the mountain.

“This kind can only come out through prayer,” Jesus told his disciples (Mark 9:29).   There’s no easy formula.   Sometimes the footholds are hard to find.   Sometimes the air is too thin.   You have to be careful.   You have to be deliberate.   You have to be humble.   In the end, the best you can do is try to stay close to the Lord and follow his lead—whatever you think that is.

There’s no guarantee that you will always get it right.   The only thing you can be sure of is that, even if you slide down the mountain, Jesus will always be there to pick you up, encourage you, and help you keep climbing.

“Jesus, help me to persevere in prayer and in service to your people.   Lord, I want to climb higher and closer to you.”

James 3:13-18
Psalm 19:8-10, 15