I love you, Lord, my strength.--Psalm 18:2
Mass readings: Deuteronomy 6:4-13 / Matthew 17:14-20
Have you or your family or friends been touched by addiction? My own family would certainly recognize the grieving father's cry in today's reading: ''My son suffers severely. Often he falls into fire, and often into water.'' To say that healing of addiction is assured by prayer would be a lie. Sometimes we can storm the heavens on behalf of an alcohol- or drug-addicted loved one, and still face a tragic ending. Like the disciples, we can feel that somehow we've failed.
What Jesus tells them is not that their faith is poor, but that it is ''little.'' A ''larger'' faith recognizes our littleness and trusts God to be God in the lives of those we love. That can be so difficult, but sometimes it's the only way we can survive to keep praying.
Prayer: God, I can do little, but I know You can do all.