Healing and racing up
The first reading comes from the wisdom book of Ben Sirach, a high-placed Jewish official of Jerusalem in the 2nd century BC. Whatever wisdom a human person can acquire through education and experience falls far short of true and full wisdom which comes from God, and which often puts human wisdom to shame. Indeed, human wisdom is sometimes folly, and God’s folly, as the wisdom of the cross, is genuine wisdom.
Jesus heals a man who is possessed. He demands faith and trusting prayer, otherwise we are closed to God’s action. Mark describes the healing of the possessed boy in terms of a raising up, like the cure of the mother-in-law of Peter or the raising up of the daughter of Jairus. By his touch Jesus heals and restores life.
Reading: Sirach 1:1-10
All wisdom comes from the Lord God and has been with the Lord God from the first, even before there was a calendar to count. Grains of sands, drops of rain, number of days since time began, who’s been counting? Height of sky, girth of earth, deep of sea, who’s been measuring? How come the wisdom of God came first, before there was a first, and is anything looking into this? Before all creation, Lady Wisdom was wise, and with her stood intellect and prudence. Source of Wisdom? Best guess: the word of God Most High, his activities and eternal mandates.
Root of Wisdom—who’s leaking her secrets? And her nimbleness—who’s trying to match it? The discipline, the science of wisdom—who grasps it? Her multiple experience—who’s got a handle on it? The only one who knows all this is the Most High, omnipotent Creator, powerful King. You can’t be in awe enough of God, sitting in his throne and lording it over all. Wisdom he created, breathing her into existence. Her he saw and sized up, her he fitted into all hos works; every human being he arranged according to her size and weight; her he introduced to all his friends.
Gospel: Mark 9:13-28
When they came back down the mountain to the other disciples, they saw a huge crowd around them, and the religion scholars cross-examining them. As soon as the people in the crowd saw Jesus, admiring excitement stirred them. They ran and greeted him. He asked, “What’s going on? What’s all the commotion?”
A man out of the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought my mute son, made speechless by a demon, to you. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and goes stiff as a board. I told your disciples, hoping they could deliver him, but they couldn’t.”
Jesus said, “What a generation! No sense of God! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this? Bring the boy here.” They brought him. When the demon saw Jesus, it threw the boy into a seizure, causing him to writhe on the ground and foam at the mouth.
He asked the boy’s father, “How long has this been going on?”
“Ever since he was a little boy. Many times it pitches him into fire or the river to do away with him. If you can do anything, do it. Have a heart and help us!”
Jesus said, “If? There are no ‘ifs’ among believers. Anything can happen.”
No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the father cried, “Then I believe. Help me with my doubts!”
Seeing that the crowd was forming fast, Jesus gave the vile spirit its marching orders: “Dumb and deaf spirit, I command you—Out of him, and stay out!” Screaming, and with much thrashing about, it left. The boy was pale as a corpse, so people started saying, “He’s dead.” But Jesus, taking his hand, raised him. The boy stood up.
After arriving back home, his disciples cornered Jesus and asked, “Why couldn’t we throw the demon out?”
Prayer
Compassionate God,
through your Son, Jesus Christ,
you raised the sick to a full life
by healing them.
Take us by the hand too,
touch us and restore us to a fuller humanity.
Touch our minds, that we may become wiser
and look at the world and people
with your own compassionate eyes.
Touch our hearts,
that we may love and serve people more.
We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.