Healing of an emdemonized epileptic
The Power of Faith: Healing and Unbelief
In Matthew 17:14-21, the main message that Jesus wants to convey to his disciples is about the power of faith and the importance of prayer. When the disciples are faced with the inability to cast out a demon, they approach Jesus to ask for explanations.
The combination of faith and prayer becomes therefore fundamental for the disciples in their missionary journey.
The answer given by Jesus: "For your little faith" emphasizes that lack of trust in God limits their ability to act and perform miracles.
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Gospel - Matthew [17,14-21]
As soon as we had returned to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and, kneeling down, said: Lord, have mercy on my son. He is epileptic and suffers much; it falls often in the fire and often also in the water; I have already brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him». And Jesus answered: «O incredulous and perverse generation! How long will I stay with you? How long must I endure you? Bring him here». And Jesus spoke to him with a threatening voice, and the devil came out of him, and from that moment the boy was healed.
Then the disciples, approaching Jesus on the side, asked him: «Why we could not drive him away?». And he answered: For your little faith. Verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a little grain of mustard, ye shall say to this mount: Move from here to there, and it shall move, and nothing shall be impossible unto you. [This race of demons is not cast out except by prayer and fasting]».
Exegesis - Demonized epileptic Matthew [17,14-21]
In Mark's narration, the healing of the demon-possessed young man immediately follows the account of the Transfiguration, where Jesus manifests himself in his identity to three of his disciples. Now, in the present passage, Jesus descends from the mountain and, having arrived at the other nine disciples left at the foot of the mountain, he sees the scribes arguing with them. Although the disciples had received the power to cast out demons, they had not been able to free the possessed boy.
The scribes made a mockery of him to mock Jesus and the power he gave to his disciples; but how does Jesus respond to the provocation? He fights the evil spirit that imprisons that child, and frees him. How is it possible that Jesus is able to drive him out? All the Gospels tell us how the liberation of the devil takes place, and how the possessed always behave in the same way: they grind their teeth, they froth from their mouths, they are stiffened by a mysterious force that throws them to the ground, sometimes into fire or water, dislocates their bones under the power of the unclean spirit.
The possessed are no longer able to dominate themselves, they are subjugated by this force that destroys all will, all reasonableness and leads them to a devastation that pushes them to self-destruction; however no one can blame them, because the signs that are seen are similar to madness, to hatred.
In this text we are presented with a child who even from childhood was subject to this evil force, but when Jesus questions his father he receives an important answer: “if you can do anything, have mercy on us and help us”, to which Jesus replies: “everything is possible for those who believe”, and it is as if he said “I have come to defeat the diabolical power, however I cannot act yet, because I am waiting to see if you really trust”.
Here is the admission of that father: “I believe, help me in my unbelief”, which in synthesis is that act of faith that Jesus awaits and that allows him, now, to act: “Dumb and deaf spirit, I will do it for you. I order, get out of him and never go back”. And shouting and shaking him strongly, he went out. The devil is defeated!
We, too, can be exposed to the action of this diabolical force, by which even Jesus himself, as the Gospels tell us, was tempted. Let us always remember the characteristics of temptation: beautiful to look at, easy to fulfill, so persuasive and within reach so as not to see anything wrong in welcoming it. Sometimes the attack is even more subtle, suggesting that the very good Jesus did not protect us, did not prevent us from falling into sickness or misfortune: this is a targeted action of the demon, who wishes to tear us away from the One who can free us. And save.
The Gospel passage in question teaches us that faith nourished by prayer is the condition in which God's work takes shape. The disciples, who disappeared from the scene after Jesus' reproach “unbelieving generation”, are now in the quiet of a house, far from the crowd, together with the Master: sorry and confused, they do not understand why their action was ineffective, “because we could not drive him away”. Jesus is there with them, his words have the certainty of those who govern the situation, of those who ask His disciples for the courage of trust, an essential condition for having the gift of defeating evil.
We ask the Lord to nourish more and more in us the capacity for discernment, and to make us understand what comes from Jesus and what comes from Satan.
