Sunrise
All things are possible if you believe.
When they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. When the whole crowd saw him, they were immediately overcome with awe, and they ran forward to greet him. He asked them, ‘What are you arguing about with them?’ Someone from the crowd answered him, ‘Teacher, I brought you my son; he has a spirit that makes him unable to speak; and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, but they could not do so.’ He answered them, ‘You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him to me.’ And they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, immediately it threw the boy into convulsions, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the father, ‘How long has this been happening to him?’ And he said, ‘From childhood. It has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘If you are able!—All things can be done for the one who believes.’ Immediately the father of the child cried out, ‘I believe; help my unbelief!’ When Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, ‘You spirit that keep this boy from speaking and hearing, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again!’ After crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, ‘He is dead.’ But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he was able to stand. When he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ He said to them, ‘This kind can come out only through prayer.’ - Mark 9:14-29
As I write this, the sun is rising in the East.
If I look toward the sun, I see the light directly and it is impressive, but blinding. If I look to the West, however, I see the tips of the trees starting to glow red and sky slipping from grey to blue. The beauty of the sunrise is revealing itself in everything I see and that is even more impressive than the sun itself.
Today's Gospel is about believing in what we cannot see. It is like the trees and houses and sky just before the sunrise, when all is still in darkness.
We don't know what is possible until we see it with our own eyes, or experience it for ourselves. And yet, like the trees in the darkness, they are there, invisible for a while before the light hits them.
The boy in the story lived with a demon since childhood and no matter what anyone done, the demon won, destined to kill him if it could. But Jesus reminds us that the solution is there, it is just hidden by our disbelief and fear.
We will get through this and when we do, we will choose to either go back to doing as we always did, or we will choose to be better.
I like better.
More to come...