14. And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying,
15. Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatic, and sore vexed: for often he falls into the fire, and often into the water.
16. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not cure him.
17. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.
18. And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.
ORIGEN; Peter, anxious for such desirable life, and preferring his own benefit to that of many, had said, It is good for us to be here. But since charity seeks not her own, Jesus did not this which seemed good to Peter, but descended to the multitude, as it were from the high mount of His divinity, that He might be of use to such as could not ascend because of the weakness of their souls; whence it is said, And when he was come to the multitude; for if He had not gone to the multitude with His elect disciples, there would not have come near to Him the man of whom it is added, There came to him a man kneeling down, and, saying, Lord, have mercy on my son.
Consider here, that sometimes those that are themselves the sufferers believe and entreat for their own healing, sometimes others for them, as he who kneels before Him praying for his son, and sometimes the Savior heals of Himself unasked by any. First, let us see what this means that follows, For he is lunatic, and sorely vexed. Let the physicians talk as they wish; for they think it no unclean spirit, but some bodily disorder, and say, that the humors in the head are governed in their motions by sympathy with the phases of the moon, whose light is of the nature of humors. But we who believe the Gospel say that it is an unclean spirit that works such disorders in men. The spirit observes the moon's changes, that it may cheat men into the belief that the moon is the cause of their sufferings, and so prove God's creation to be evil; as other demons lay wait for men following the times and courses of the stars, that they may speak wickedness in high places, calling some stars malignant, others benign; whereas no star was made by God that it should produce evil. In this that is added, For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water,
CHRYS; is to be noted, that were not man fortified here by Providence, he would long since have perished; for the demon who cast him into the fire, and into the water, would have killed him outright, had God not restrained him.
JEROME; In saying, And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him, he covertly accuses the Apostles, whereas that a cure is impossible is sometimes the effect not of want of power in those that undertake it, but of want of faith in those that are to be healed.
CHRYS; See herein also his folly, in that before the multitude he appeals to Jesus against His disciples. But He clears them from shame, imputing their failure to the patient himself; for many things show that he was weak in faith. But He addresses His reproof not to the man singly, that He may not trouble him, but to the Jews in general. For many of those present, it is likely, had improper thoughts concerning the disciples, and therefore it follows, Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, how long shall I suffer you? His How long shall I be with you? shows that death was desired by Him, and that He longed for His withdrawal.
REMIG; It may be known also, that not now for the first time, but of a long time, the Lord had borne the Jews' stubbornness, whence He says, How long shall I suffer you? because I have now a long while endured your iniquities, and you are unworthy of My presence.
ORIGEN; Or; Because the disciples could not heal him as being weak in faith, He said to them, O faithless generation, adding perverse, to show that their perverseness had introduced evil beyond their nature. But I suppose, that because of the perverseness of the whole human race, as it were oppressed with their evil nature, He said, How long shall I be with you?
JEROME; Not that we must think that He was overcome by weariness of them, and that The meek and gentle broke out into words of wrath, but as a physician who might see the sick man acting against his injunctions, would say, How long shall I frequent your chamber? How long throw away the exercise of my skill, while I prescribe one thing, and you do another? That it is the sin, and not the man with whom He is angry, and that in the person of this one man He convicts the Jews of unbelief, is clear from what He adds, Bring him to me.
CHRYS; When He had vindicated His disciples, He leads the boy's father to a cheering hope of believing that he shall be delivered out of this evil; and that the father might be led to believe the miracle that was coming, seeing the demon was disturbed even when the child was only called;
JEROME; He rebuked him, that is, not the sufferer, but the demon.
REMIG; In which deed He left an example to preachers to attack sins, but to assist men.
JEROME; Or, His reproof was to the child, because for his sins he had been seized on by the demon.
RABAN; The lunatic is figuratively one who is hurried into fresh vices every hour, one while is cast into the fire, with which the hearts of the adulterers burn; or again into the waters of pleasures or lusts, which yet have not strength to quench love.
AUG. Or the fire pertains to anger, which aims upwards, water to the lusts of the flesh.
ORIGEN; Of the changefulness of the sinner it is said, The fool changes as the moon. We may see sometimes that an impulse towards good works comes over such, when, lo! again as by a sudden seizure of a spirit they are laid hold of by their passions, and fall from that good state in which they were supposed to stand. Perhaps his father stands for the Angel to whom was allotted the care of this lunatic, praying the Physician of souls, that He would set free his son, who could not be delivered from his suffering by the simple word of Christ's disciples, because as a deaf person he cannot receive their instruction, and therefore he needs Christ's word, that henceforth he may not act without reason.
19. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?
20. And Jesus said to them, Because of your unbelief: for I say to you, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you.
21. This kind goes not out except by prayer and fasting.
CHRYS; The disciples had received from the Lord the power over unclean spirits, and when they could not heal the demoniac thus brought to them, they seem to have had misgivings lest they had forfeited the grace once given to them; hence their question. And they ask it apart, not out of shame, but because of the unspeakable matter of which they were to ask.
Jesus said to them, Because of your unbelief.
HILARY; The Apostles had believed, yet their faith was imperfect; while the Lord tarried in the mount, and they abode below with the multitude, their faith had become stagnant.
CHRYS; Whence it is plain that the disciples' faith was grown weak, yet not all, for those pillars were there, Peter, and James, and John.
JEROME; This is what the Lord says in another place, Whatever you shall ask in my name believing, you shall receive. Therefore when we receive not, it is not the weakness of Him that gives, but the fault of them that ask.
CHRYS; But it is to be known, that, as often the faith of him that draws near to receive supplies the miraculous virtue, so often the power of those that work the miracle is sufficient even without the faith of those who sought to receive. Cornelius and his house hold, by their faith, attracted to them the grace of the Holy Spirit; but the dead man who was cast into the sepulcher of Elisha, was revived solely by virtue of the holy body. It happened that the disciples were then weak in faith; for indeed they were but in an imperfect condition before the cross; wherefore He here tells them, that faith is the mean of miracles, I say to you, if you shall have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, you shall say to this mountain, Remove hence, and it shall remove.
JEROME; Some think that the faith that is compared to a grain of mustard-seed is a little faith, whereas the Apostle says, If I shall have such faith that I could remove mountains. The faith therefore which is compared to a grain of mustard-seed is a great faith.
GREG; The mustard-seed, unless it be bruised, does not give out its qualities, so if persecution fall upon a holy man, straightway what had seemed weak and contemptible in him is roused into the heat and fervor of virtue.
ORIGEN; Or, all faith is likened to a grain of mustard-seed, because faith is looked on with contempt by men, and shows as something poor and mean; but when a seed of this kind lights upon a good heart as its soil, it becomes a great tree. The weakness of this lunatic's faith is yet so great, and Christ is so strong to head him amidst all his evils, that He likens it to a mountain which cannot be cast out but by the whole faith of him who desires to heal afflictions of this sort.
CHRYS; So He not only promises the removal of mountains, but goes beyond, saying, And nothing shall be impossible to you.
RABAN; For faith gives our minds such a capacity for the heavenly gifts, that whatsoever we will we may easily obtain from a faithful Master.
CHRYS; If you shall ask, Where did the Apostles remove mountains? I answer, that they did greater things, bringing many dead to life. It is told also of some saints, who came after the Apostles, that they have in urgent necessity removed mountains . But if mountains were not removed in the Apostles' time, this was not because they could not, but because they would not, there being no pressing occasion. And the Lord said not that they should do this thing, but that they should have power to do it. Yet it is likely that they did do this, but that it is not written, for indeed not all the miracles that they wrought are written.
JEROME; Or; the mountain is not said of that which we see with the eyes of the body, but signified that spirit which was removed by the Lord out of the lunatic, who is said by the Prophet to be the corrupter of the whole earth.
GLOSS; So that the sense then is, you shall say to this mountain, that is to the proud devil, Remove hence, that is from the possessed body into the sea, that is into the depths of hell, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible to you, that is, no sickness shall be incurable.
AUG; Otherwise; That the disciples in working their miracles should not be lifted up with pride, they are warned rather by the humbleness of their faith, as by a grain of mustard-seed, to take care that they remove all pride of earth, which is signified by the mountain in this place.
RABAN; But while He teaches the Apostles flow the demon ought to be cast out, He instructs all in regulation of life; that we may all know that all the heavier infliction, whether of unclean spirits, or temptations of men, may be removed by fasts and prayers; and that the wrath also of the Lord may be appeased by this remedy alone; whence he adds, This kind is not cast out except by prayer and fasting.
CHRYS; And this He says not of lunatics in particular, but of the whole class of demons. For fast endues with great wisdom, makes a man as an Angel from heaven, and beats down the unseen powers of evil. But there is need of prayer as even still more important. And who prays as he ought, and fasts, had need of little more, and so is not covetous, but ready to almsgiving. For he who fasts, is light and active, and prays wakefully, and quenches his evil lusts, makes God propitious, and humbles his proud stomach. And he who prays with his fasting, has two wings, lighter than the winds themselves. For he is not heavy and wandering in his prayers, (as is the case with many,) but his zeal is as the warmth of fire, and his constancy as the firmness of the earth. Such an one is most able to contend with demons, for there is nothing more powerful than a man who prays properly. But if your health be too weak for strict fast, yet is it not for prayer, and if you cannot fast, you can abstain from indulgences. And this is not a little, and not very different from fast.
ORIGEN; If then we shall ever be required to be employed in the healing of those who are suffering any thing of this sort, we shall not adjure them, nor ask them questions, nor even speak, as though the unclean spirit could hear us, but by our fasting and our prayers drive away the evil spirits.
GLOSS; Or; This class of demons, that is the variety of carnal pleasures, is not overcome unless the spirit be strengthened by prayer, and the flesh enfeebled by fast.
REMIG; Or, fasting is here understood generally as abstinence not from food only, but from all carnal allurements, and sinful passions. In like manner prayer is to be understood in general as consisting in pious and good acts, concerning which the Apostle speaks, Pray without ceasing.
Catena Aurea Matthew 17