Homily for 17 August 2014, the 10th Sunday after Pentecost--Prayer and Fasting

Homily for 17 August 2014:  Prayer and Fasting

10^th Sunday after Pentecost (1 Corinthians 4:9-16)                    (Matthew 17:14-23)

 

The Gospels don’t contain many examples of Jesus’s getting angry, and His outburst in today’s reading seems especially surprising because it’s hard to understand why He suddenly calls his disciples a “faithless and perverse generation” and asks how long He will have to endure them.

It’s as though He suddenly snaps and asks them, “Haven’t you learned anything, following me around?  This poor man asked you to heal his son’s mental illness and you couldn’t even do that!  Do I have to do everything myself?”

Then, after Jesus has driven out the demon that is tormenting the boy, curing his madness, the disciples ask, “Why couldn’t we do that?”

Jesus has calmed down, but He still tells them bluntly, “You couldn’t do it because your faith is too small.”  When He says, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could move a mountain,” Jesus is telling the disciples how tiny and weak their faith is—it’s not even as big as a mustard seed.

Then He tells them, “This kind of demon can be driven out only by prayer and fasting.”  Again, He seems to be saying, “You didn’t succeed because you didn’t have enough faith even to do the most basic things—prayer and fasting.”

How does this apply to us?

First, we are all disciples of Jesus Christ.  Being disciples didn’t end with those few who actually knew and listened to and hung out with Jesus.  We have been baptized into Christ; we have been sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit; we have been nourished by the true Body and Blood of Christ-God; we come to church and sing the Liturgy and listen to the readings from the Holy Bible.  Many of us pray at home and study the Bible at home.  So, like Peter, Andrew, James, John, and the other disciples, we are following Jesus and should be learning from him.

Second, like the original disciples we often fail to heal spiritual and physical problems—our own or those that other people ask us to pray for.

So this must mean that we also don’t have strong enough faith, and that we don’t pray and fast enough.

Of course, in this modern age we realize that mental illness is not literally caused by demons.  But if we think of the suffering that mental illness causes, we can’t help thinking that somehow it is demonic or Satanic.  Maybe prayer alone cannot magically cure it or other diseases and suffering, but prayer can change attitudes, give comfort, and bring strength.  Prayer can help us to overcome pride and stubbornness and fear so that we can ask for and find help.  An atmosphere of calm and love and caring that comes from faith will make any sick person feel better.

What Jesus doesn’t directly say is that our prayer and fasting changes us more than it changes a sick person.  When we have stronger faith and live in love rather than in anger or despair, when we learn to control our passions, when we learn to seek what God wants instead of what we want, then we can help to heal others who are suffering.

So, even if our faith is smaller than a mustard seed (and whose isn’t, compared to Christ’s?), we don’t have to be “faithless and perverse.”  We can simply pray, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.”  We can fast without complaining, appreciating God’s goodness and being thankful that we have enough so that we can easily give up some of it.  And we can pray for each other, knowing that even if we cannot cure someone’s illness, God will provide what we lack and will provide what we need.

And so we give thanks and praise and glory to the Eternal Father, the Son, and the All-Holy, Good, and Life-giving Spirit, One God, now and ever and unto ages of ages.  Amen.