NOTES for Mar 9:17-31
The ancient Christians, when compiling the order of church readings, most likely assigned today's passage from the Gospel of Mark to this Sunday of Great Lent because of Christ's words: "This kind is driven out only by prayer and fasting". From these words of the Savior the conclusion suggests itself that prayer and fasting are not merely important, but at times irreplaceable means of a person's spiritual life. At the same time, of course, it must be kept in mind that the word "fasting" (as in the analogous phrase in the Gospel of Matthew) is a comparatively late Byzantine insertion here, and in the original the evangelist Mark most probably wrote, "this kind cannot come out by anything except prayer."
Nevertheless, the question of why one cannot make do in spiritual life with something more convenient seems quite natural at first glance. Yet Christ's words set every accent precisely, for without prayer you can engage in moral self-improvement or charity, but that will hardly be spiritual life.
But in the evangelist Mark's account there are words that may be no less important for us in our relationship with God. These are the words of the father of the possessed boy: "I believe, Lord; help my unbelief." None of us would dare say that he believes "wholly and completely." The constant movement from trust toward confidence and hope by accumulating the experience of faith is a natural and, I dare say, necessary part of spiritual life. And in this it is very important for us to know that we can choose not to hide unbelief, shamefully pretending to be some hypothetical confident person. This man's example says that we can bring our weakness in faith to Christ and find help and strengthening in Him Himself.