Today's Gospel

What Do You Need to Cast Out?

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we explore the genius of the Gospel. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Mark 9:14-29. When they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd about them and scribes arguing with them. And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. And he asked them, "What are you discussing with them?" And one of the crowd answered him, "Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb spirit. And wherever it seizes him, it dashes him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. And I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able." And He answered them, "Oh, faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me." And they brought the boy to Jesus. And when the Spirit saw him, immediately, it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father, "How long has he had this?" And the father said, "From childhood. And it has often cast him into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us." And Jesus said to him, "If you can, all things are possible to him who believes." Immediately, the father of the child cried out and said, "I believe. Help my unbelief." And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You dumb and deaf spirit, I command you come out of him and never enter him again." And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out. And the boy was like a corpse so that most of them said, "He is dead." But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not cast out?" He said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting."

What jumps out at you today? It's a great reading. There's a lot here, you know? There's a lot here. But this last line has always fascinated me. Where is this happening in the context of Jesus' life? Well, Jesus has sent the 72 out. He sent them out to heal people, to preach the kingdom of God to people, and they're coming back, and Jesus stumbles upon them, and a crowd, and the disciples trying to heal this boy and failing to do that. And Jesus, has a conversation with the father, casts out the spirit. But then later in private, the disciples are like, "Hey, Jesus, we did what you told us to do. We did everything exactly how you told us to do it, but we couldn't cast the spirit out. Why were you able to cast it out and we weren't able to cast it out?" What does Jesus say? He says, "This kind cannot be driven out with anything but prayer and fasting." The Gospel of Matthew says, "Some spirits, some evil spirits can only be driven out with prayer and fasting." What evil spirit do you have in your life at the moment? We've all got one, maybe a big one, maybe a little one, maybe a few. But what's that thing that you're trying to cast out of your life or you're asking God to cast out of someone else's life? And what's the call here?

The call is to prayer and fasting. Yes, very often we pray, but some spirits can only be cast out by prayer and fasting. Let's think about today, how is God calling us to fast for a very specific intention, to cast out a particular evil spirit from ourselves or from someone else, or from our culture? Have a great day. And remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.

I hope you're enjoying the Daily Gospel Reflections. It's one of the things I love doing, spending this time with you each day. Recently, I released a book called 33 Days to Divine Mercy. If you haven't had a chance to check that out yet, encourage you to do that today.