Daily Devotional for November 21

 

November 21                                                  Matthew 17:14-21

         "Then the disciples came to Jesus privately
    and said, 'Why could we not cast it out?' He said
             to them, 'Because of your little faith.' "

Jesus, I have wondered why we, your disciples, have been
unable to heal so many cases of cancer, AIDS, and other forms
of disease and sickness. In today's Gospel you offer a five-word
answer: "Because of your little faith." I resist your analysis,
Jesus, but it is inescapable, for the disciples' situation described
here is no different from ours today.

We say we have faith. We want to have faith. But as diseases
and sickness continue, your words return to disturb us. Perhaps
we do not understand what faith is, after all. Jesus, teach us
about faith.

     My child, faith is not primarily an acceptance of some
     revealed truth, although it may involve this. Nor is faith
     primarily the assent of your will to something you have
     not chosen, although it may involve this, too. Rather, faith
     is the knowledge of God experienced in prayer. When you
     open yourself to that gift, you are transformed little by
     little to become God's self. Through this process the
     powerful presence of God enters the world to heal and
     transform. My child, you were created to be an opening
     for God to heal the world. Therefore, if you wish to
     increase your faith and fulfill your high calling, there is
     only one way: you must enter more deeply into prayer.

Jesus, we Christians pay lip service to prayer, but our lives betray
our words. We are more interested in programs and projects
and propaganda. Perhaps that is why our world is still not healed
and transformed. Help me today to set aside my frenetic
busyness and to enter into the simplicity and power of prayer.

​

From The Road to Emmaus - An inclusive devotional Edited by Joseph W. Houle

Emmaus House of Prayer - Washington D.C.1