Fourth Sunday of the Great Fast: St. John Climacus. Octoechos Tone 8. Holy Martyr Codratus and Those with Him (249-51)
Great Fast Day 28. Matins Resurrectional Gospel 8. The Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great is celebrated today.
Hebrews 6:13-20. Ephesians 5:9-19. Mark 9:17-31. Matthew 4:25-5:12.
Read Mark 9:17-31
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
“I believe; help my unbelief!” Now there’s a sentence from scripture that we can all relate to! In today’s gospel reading, Jesus gives us that help.
Upon hearing that his disciples could not cast out an evil spirit, Jesus called the crowd a “faithless generation.” Then he admonished the father of the possessed child for couching his request to Jesus in language leaving open whether it was even possible for Jesus to do what he was asking. Of course, Jesus was able and did so simply by his command. But later he said that more than just a command was involved, and that was why his disciples could not cast it out – “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting.”
Therein lies the help.
After his baptism by John, Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days (Mark 1:12-13). That was his preparatory fast. He had given his disciples authority to cast out demons (Mark 3:15), but their time of fasting would not come until Jesus was taken from them (Mark 2:20).
Faith is a lot more than we often think it is. It is way more than just agreeing with or having an emotional engagement with words about God. It involves committed work.
The Letter of James (2:14,26) says, “What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him?…For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead.”
Just as spirit is the animating principle of the body, works is the animating principle of faith. The help for the unbelief we have in the midst of belief is to apply ourselves to the committed activity of works of faith. Like prayer and fasting.