"Because of Your Unbelief..."

What is it truly that we believe?

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty.  Good!  That’s a required first step.  And while the Nicean Creed contains many other elements of our ‘beliefs’ (in Christ, in the Holy Spirit, in Christ’s Church, etc.), certainly there is more to our belief, especially as related to our Lord’s chastisement of those involved in the healing of the boy in today’s Gospel for their unbelief.  So, what’s missing?

There are many other instances in the Gospels in which Jesus speaks to the issue of belief.

In the parallel account of today’s reading from the Gospel of St. Mark, Jesus speaks to the father of the boy and says, If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.  Note the ‘conditions’ that our Lord applies to belief here.  Jesus does NOT say to the man, ‘All things are possible for Me.’  Clearly that would be true.  But what the Lord clearly says is that YOUR faith is required for Him to act in response to YOUR prayer of need.  Jesus further does not limit the extent of His blessing to act in response to the prayer of faith.  He says, ALL things are possible to him who believes.  ‘All’ does not exclude anything, does it?  The unstated ‘condition’ on this is that one who comes in faith with a prayerful need will not be praying for something they know to be counter to that which is of benefit to their salvation.

In the Gospel of St. Mark, we hear words from today’s father that are very important to a complete healing.  After our Lord’s admonishment toward belief, the man says to Jesus, Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief!  What is this seemingly contradictory statement from the father saying?  He recognizes the need for belief.  In that recognition, he understands that he truly wants his son to be healed.  But as of yet he is still not sure that the level of his belief is adequate to what is required to reach the possible that our Lord is teaching him (and us) for which to strive.  How does unbelief manifest itself in our society?

A Pew Research study of those who describe themselves as “nones”, or people do not identify with any religious group, offer reasons for their lack of belief which include: don’t believe; don’t need religion; unaffiliated but religious (tell me what THAT means, please); spiritual but not religious; non-practicing.  In short, it’s easy to offer an excuse for not being committed to a particular church.  Unfortunately, these excuses also indicate disconnect from God Himself, a definition of unbelief!

But what of my own unbelief?  How does it manifest itself to my spiritual detriment?  Let me look at the question with a kind of reverse focus.  I don’t pray as often as I should.  When I do pray, my prayer is not ‘focused’.  If I truly believed (that my prayer mattered and made a difference), this would not be the case.  I put far too much emphasis on self, and far too little on the people our Lord calls me to care for—the least of His brethren.

So today’s admonition by our Lord as He says, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?  How long shall I bear with you?, those words are directed not only to those present on that day as the Lord returns from Mt. Tabor, but they’re equally directed at me.

Lord, heal my heart.  Conform my will to Your will.  Let me no longer be faithless and perverse, but faithful and without corruption.