“As Jesus came down from the mountain with Peter, James, John …”
It is this first line that makes the story “shocking.” Peter, James and John had just come from the vision of Jesus transfigured before them. Moses and Elijah had appeared. A voice from the cloud spoke lovingly about Jesus. It had to be the most powerful religious experience of their lives and they were euphoric and felt so close to Jesus as they came down the mountain with him.
But immediately they ran into a crowd of disciples who had been unable to heal a boy. It was chaos. Perhaps the father stood in the throng pleading desperately for a cure. His possessed son may have been thrown to the ground again in a violent agony. Jesus’ followers argued with scribes, who were probably quite happy that the disciples of this upstart preacher could not heal in his name. Such a public failure for the disciples of Jesus! Peter, James and John felt the peace and happiness drain out of them as they confronted the scene with Jesus.
Isn’t this like us? We can be feeling great in our relationship with the Lord, everything going well. We might even be going to Mass every day, doing devotions. Life feels balanced until - boom! - we are confronted with a challenge to our faith, to our peace. We might ask for help from God but we are timid: “If you can, heal us.” We don’t really trust. We don’t really believe.
If you can? We picture Jesus, hearing the emptiness in our prayers, shaking his head. “O faithless generation,” he sighs.
It’s good for us to hear Jesus’ sigh - almost in exasperation. How much more could this be said of our generation!
We ask for favors, for fixes, for healing for many things. But how much do we really want them answered? How much are we willing to lay our faith on the line? So many demons possess us each day. Envy over what others have. Depressions, disappointments in our lives. A selfishness about the way we see our marriage. A tightness of our hearts when it comes to the child who disappoints us the most.
If you can, heal us. We don’t really believe.
Jesus lifts his hand to heal us but we call out, “Wait! First heal him - that guy over there who drives me crazy at work!” or we offer him the sister who makes us angry, the friend with whom we have fallen out, the spouse who is distant. “Fix that person. Heal her. Make him better,” we urge. We cling to our familiar demons. What would it cost us to let them go?
Today Jesus invites us to examine our demons with our whole hearts. What kind of demons do we want to drive out of our lives? What addictions cripple us, throwing us to the ground each day? We sometimes feel the most powerless over the patterns that have been in our life for a long time, perhaps all our lives. Why could we not drive that spirit out? Why do we feel like saying “Well, I’ve tried and I just can’t do it!”? These demons are powerful, but they can be healed. Jesus can heal us. It takes more effort on our part, more prayer, more faith. We have to ask Jesus to help us open our whole hearts to him, our whole lives. Forgive our unbelief.
“He said to them, ‘This kind can only come out through prayer’ ” and some familiar translations add “and through fasting.” Jesus reminds us that the most troubling, difficult, evil problems we face take serious prayer, and maybe even fasting. To break the bond, the hold that some things just have on us, it takes strong medicine. Complete trust in God is a desire we need to ask for, and we have to prepare a place for it in our hearts. We prepare our lives and our hearts for Lent by praying for our deepest desires and with a new awareness of the fasting we will do in Lent. We beg for help.
It is in this moment that Jesus will take us by the hand and raise us from the hard, cold ground onto which we have fallen. We feel his love and his embrace. We really can be healed.
Maureen McCann Waldron
The most important part of my life is my family – Jim my husband of 47 years and our two children. Our daughter Katy, a banker here in Omaha, and her husband John, have three wonderful children: Charlotte, Daniel and Elizabeth Grace. Our son Jack and his wife, Ellie, have added to our joy with their sons, Peter and Joseph.
I think family life is an incredible way to find God, even in (or maybe I should say, especially in) the most frustrating or mundane moments.
I am a native of the East Coast after graduating in 1971 from Archbishop John Carroll High School in suburban Philadelphia. I graduated from Creighton University in 1975 with a degree in Journalism and spent most of the next 20 years in corporate public relations in Omaha. I returned to Creighton in the 1990s and completed a master’s degree in Christian Spirituality in 1998.
As our children were growing up, my favorite times were always family dinners at home when the four of us would talk about our days. But now that our kids are gone from home, my husband and I have rediscovered how nice it is to have a quiet dinner together. I also have a special place in my heart for family vacations when the kids were little and four of us were away from home together. It’s a joy to be with my growing family.
Writing a Daily Reflection is always a graced moment, because only with God’s help could I ever write one. I know my own life is hectic, disjointed and imperfect and I know most of us have lives like that. I usually write from that point of view and I always seem to find some sentence, some word in the readings that speaks right to me, in all of my imperfection. I hope that whatever I write is in some way supportive of others.
It’s an incredibly humbling experience to hear from someone who was touched by something I wrote. Whether the note is from someone across campus or across the world, it makes me realize how connected we are all in our longing to grow closer to God.
