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Faith will not turn me into a superhero. Prayer will not give me superpowers. This cannot be what Jesus is saying when he says everything is possible to one who has faith. This cannot be what Jesus means when he says that this kind can only come out through prayer. In the story, the fruit of prayer and faith come out as superpowers. It would be easy for us to equate these superpowers with being able to do everything. Yet having superpowers is not everything.
Sirach tells us that God possesses imcomparable wisdom. So even when we imagine that everything is possible for us, we are only thinking of a fraction of everything that could be. Even if we can imagine simultaneously a thousand different scenarios and circumstances that would make our lives more perfect, we are not close to imagining everything God means by perfection. We can only understand at any moment a small portion of God's wisdom and His will.
Faith and prayer open us up to what is possible. Selfishness and doubt focus us on the impossible. Having faith is not so much our imagining having the same superpowers Jesus has. It is believing in the specific power that is in the mind of God for us, that special gift of holiness that God wants to give to us and to no one else. It is accepting the vocation that is in the mind of God for us, a vocation to heal some part of the world just as surely as Jesus healed the man possessed by a mute spirit.
Praying is probably the most difficult thing we have to learn how to do. There are so many other thing that are easier than keeping faith. But for the sake of being able to believe all things are possible, let's not always do the easiest things first. Lord, help our unbelief! Lord, teach us to pray! +m
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