“I do believe, help my unbelief!” This is the cry of the father in today’s Gospel. He asks Jesus to cure his son who seems to have a form of epilepsy. The father asks Jesus to do something with these words: “But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Jesus in turn responds: “‘If you can!’ Everything is possible to one who has faith.” The father responds with these words of faith and unbelief: “I do believe, help my unbelief!”
This passage describes well the journey of faith of most of us if not all of us. One day our faith is rock solid and the next day we have questions or doubts. Where are you God? Why did you allow this to happen to me or to the one I love? Like the father we often ask God if he can do something to help us: “Lord, have mercy.” These questions of doubt are also words of prayer. The psalmist expresses a questioning faith with these words: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why so far from my call for help, from my cries of anguish?” (Psalm 22).
The words of this psalm were also spoken by Jesus on the cross: “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani’…My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). Jesus’ last words on the cross were words of faith and trust in God: “’Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”; and when he had said this he breathed his last.” (Luke 23:46).
Like the father in today’s Gospel and like Jesus on the cross you and I are invited to take this journey of faith. We may have to move from faith to doubt or even unbelief, but this questioning faith is also prayer. We may need to challenge God: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” God wants to hear our honest and heartfelt words. God also asks us to trust in him. So, we are called to conclude our prayer with the words of Jesus on the cross: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” We pray with the father in today’s Gospel: “I do believe, help my unbelief!”
Image: Arina Krasnikova; Woman in Orange and Black Long Sleeve Shirt Sitting on Train, CC, pexels-photo-5417912.