Mark 9:17-31 2024/4/14 Osaka Church
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Many people live with the pain and suffering of existence, thinking that if they had faith, they could believe in things such as the virgin birth taught by Christianity or the resurrection of the dead, which seem impossible. They live with the feeling that they cannot believe in God or Buddha, let alone Christianity. These people are not like those who live their lives smoothly without any stumbling blocks, saying, “Why worry about things? It’s fine as long as I enjoy every day,” and smoothly pass their days. These people’s lives are neither enviable nor secure.
There is one thing I would like people to know who are thinking, “It’s not good if things continue like this. I’m sure I’ll get stuck somewhere. But I just can’t seem to have faith. I can’t believe…”.
In today’s Gospel, a father who asked the Lord Jesus to heal his son, who was possessed by an evil spirit and was still rolling around on the ground foaming at the mouth in front of his eyes, made this request to Lord Jesus.
“If you are able, please have mercy on us and help us.”
When Jesus heard this, he chided the father. “If I can do? Anything is possible for those who believe.” The father cried out, holding on to the Lord. “Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief!” The Lord immediately healed the child.
This request, “I believe. Please help my unbelief,” is a heart-wrenching cry from someone who admits that he cannot believe but still can’t help but ask help. In fact, the Lord’s response to this contradictory request teaches us something decisive when considering faith. …It is possible to have “the faith of the unbelievers.”
Many people are scared of death, which is approaching every moment, and it is unknown when it will strike, but they are helpless and waste their time paralyzing their minds with daily busy-ness and distractions. Their thoughts are, “This is not okay. What on earth is the meaning of my life? What is this anxiety that Even people with such feelings, can they not pray, “God, I still don’t understand you, I can’t see you, I can’t grasp you. But if you are there, please have mercy and seize me, this unbelieving me”?
As we pray like this, our stubborn hearts gradually soften, and we come to realize something important. We thought we couldn’t have faith because we couldn’t believe, but in reality, it’s not because we can’t believe, it’s because we “don’t believe.” Even if we wait, thinking we might believe someday, we will never truly believe. If we don’t believe, we won’t come to believe. On the contrary, believing just because everything makes sense to us is no longer faith. It’s not faith but philosophy or science. Moreover, to casually say “I believe” in such incredible things as the existence of God, the birth of God’s son from a virgin womb, the forgiveness of sins through the cross, the resurrection of Christ, the grace overflowing in the Church, the Eucharist being the body and blood of the Lord, the second coming and the final judgment, is to be a liar or sick. Without lying or being sick, acknowledging boldly the “things I cannot believe,” and still making the decision of “believing” as an unwavering determination, entrusting everything in life, both life and death, to it, in other words, becoming a “believer (John 20:27),” this is faith. Faith is the act of taking upon yourself a life of believing that if you welcome the person called Christ into your life, you will be resurrected to a new self.
Faith is similar to marriage. Even in passionate love marriages, we don’t marry someone just because we believe they are the best partner. There may be anxiety and fear, but we throw ourselves into each other’s arms with our entire lives at stake. Coming to a deep understanding and conviction of love takes time, shared struggles, and overcoming numerous crises together. Faith is the same. It begins with a determination towards faith, goes back and forth, gradually grows, and eventually turns into conviction, finally transforming into the rhythm of daily life. At that moment, every beat of the heart and every breath becomes a “prayer.”
All of this begins with the incoherent, heartbreaking, and single-minded prayer of the father in today’s gospel: “I believe, please help thou my unbelief.”’