EMBER WEDNESDAY: SEPTEMBER:

 

The reading of the holy Gospel according to St. Mark: At that time one of the crowd answering, said, "Master, I have brought to thee my son, who has a dumb spirit." And so forth.

Homily of St. Bede the Venerable, Priest

This possessed person whom the Lord healed when He came down from the mountain Mark mentions as being deaf and dumb, while Matthew says that he was a lunatic. At any rate he represents those of whom it is written: "A fool is changed as the moon." Such men, never remaining in the same state, are turned now to these, now to those evil deeds, and thus increase and decrease as the moon. They are dumb, since they do not confess their faith; they are deaf, because they do not hear the word of truth. They foam at the mouth as they pine away in their folly. For it is usual for fools and morons to discharge saliva from their mouths. They gnash their teeth when they grow hot with the fury of their anger; they wither away when they grow enfeebled through the dulling effect of pleasure, and, not strengthened by the exercise of their faculties, they live a listless life.

Now when the man says, "And I spoke to thy disciples to cast him out and they could not," he indirectly makes a charge against the apostles, whereas the impossibility of a cure sometimes is to be imparted not to the incapability of those who offer the cure, but to the faith of those who are to be cured, as appears from the words of the Lord: "May it be done to thee according to thy faith." "Who answering, said: 'O incredulous generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you?' " Not that He, gentle and meek as he was, who as a lamb before the shearer did not open His mouth, was overcome with disgust, nor did He break out in words of anger; but as a physician who sees a sick person acting contrary to his prescriptions, He says: "How much longer Shall I be coming to your home? How much longer shall I waste the labor of my practice, since I order one thing, and you do the other?"

"And he said to them: 'This kind can go out by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.' " While He teaches the apostles how the most wicked of the demons is to be cast out, He is preparing all men for life, so that we might realize that all the worst temptations of impure spirits or of men are to be conquered by fasting and prayer; that the wrath of God too, when it has been enkindled to wreak vengeance on our crimes, can be placated by this singular remedy. Now fasting, in a wide sense, is' not only to abstain from food, but also from all allurements of the flesh, and more, to restrain oneself from all the disorders of vice. So again, in a general sense, prayer consists/ not only in the words by which we call upon the divine clemency, but likewise in all the' things which we, inspired by the devotion of our faith, do in the service of our Creator.