Monday of Week 7 in Ordinary Time
Ecc 1:1-10
Mk 9:14-29
…the boy lay there so like a corpse that most of them said, ‘He is dead.’ But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him up, and he was able to stand.
How desperate does desperation look or sound like? How far down the pit of despair can we dwell before one feels that one has exhausted all options? And what then does or can one do, when facing what seems to be insurmountable conditions or quite simply an impasse?
We pray. We must pray. This is what Jesus tells his disciples in the gospel passage today, when they faced the impossible ministry of saving a young man from being possessed by a spirit of dumbness which had plagued him since his childhood. The disciples had been unable to drive or cast out the the spirit from the young man and were bewildered.
Two moments in this scene struck me. First: When the father pleaded, “But if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us.” To which Jesus retorted: “If you can? Everything is possible for anyone who has faith.” And the second: When Jesus responded to his disciples: “This is the kind that can only be driven out by prayer.”
Jesus had just come down with Peter, James and John, from Mount Tabor where the Transfiguration had just taken place. This Biblical scene (Mark 9:14-29) depicts a father and crowd that had been aimlessly and randomly seeking for remedies. They were exhausted from their trial and error, hocus-pocus efforts and when they surged towards Jesus, they were in discord and arguing.
We must keep in mind that Jesus, Son of God, knew everything. The Transfiguration had just taken place and his dazzling brightness was just witnessed by the disciples who had to keep everything in their hearts. Nonetheless, Jesus was not impervious to the chaotic scene awaiting him below in the mire of the land of the living. To the confused and manic, panicking crowd, he said, “You faithless generation! How much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you?” We (and the crowd then) experience Jesus’ frustration towards the persistent lack of faith and unbelief.
It may seem that the people there were at the bottom of the bottom at that point — literally, at the bottom of Mount Tabor, and figuratively, at their wits’ end! Yet despite his human exasperation and disappointment, Jesus did not abandon the father’s pleas nor dismiss the crowd. He called forth the boy for healing.
Likewise in our lives, we have indeed shown our ugliest or most desperate sides when faced with seemingly insurmountable obstacles in our daily existence. Be it a terminal illness of a loved one, the unfair treatment or unjust accusations in workplaces, the despicable choices of others that harm us, real threat of war and famine, devastating effects of natural disasters… these are all sufferings our human minds and bodies cannot properly deal with and square off! Why must I be burdened? Why am I stricken with this? I wish I could be better off… gone… vanished… free!
The choice to run away, to escape, is always presenting itself as a tempting offer. Some of these taunts and temptations come from unholy sources — the Devil, the many spirits of discontentment and doubt, our own weakened and desolate spirits. But we never can really shrug these off. To truly overcome one’s challenges, is to go through it.
Yet, as I have countlessly experienced in my life, going through it doesn’t necessarily require only grit or brute strength and human perseverance. Instead, it requires a more relentless and special concoction of prayer, wisdom and surrender. Because this clue is spoken off in the first reading of Ecclesiasticus 1:1-10:
“All wisdom is from the Lord,
and it is his own for ever.
The sand of the sea and the raindrops,
and the days of eternity, who can assess them?
The height of the sky and the breadth of the earth,
and the depth of the abyss, who can probe them?
Before all other things wisdom was created,
shrewd understanding is everlasting.”
Indeed, it is a gift of wisdom for each of us to recognise and accept that no challenge or difficulty, no illness or suffering is beyond our Heavenly Father’s ambit and power. When we can not “do it” any longer, we can still submit to Wisdom’s seat of power and prescience. We can choose to surrender His power and His infinite wisdom and ways of resolution — and we can only do this through deep, deep, free-falling prayer. And that is where Jesus will meet us — at the bottom of the bottom.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Debbie Loo)
Prayer: Help me Lord, to court Wisdom in my days and difficulties. Help me to submit to Your timing. Help me to surrender to Your terms of resolution. Help me with my unbelief.
Thanksgiving: Throughout our life, Lord, we count the manifold ways Your mercy has saved us from our desperation and regretful choices. Thank you for always meeting us at the bottom of the bottom and lifting us up.
OXYGEN 
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