The Healing of a Boy with a Demon

Today's Reflections

 

 

The Healing of a Boy with a Demon

Mt 17:14-20

¹⁴When [Jesus and his disciples] came to the crowd a man approached, knelt down before him, ¹⁵and said, “Lord, have pity on my son, for he is a lunatic and suffers severely; often he falls into fire, and often into water. ¹⁶I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.” ¹⁷Jesus said in reply, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I endure you? Bring him here to me.” ¹⁸Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him, and from that hour the boy was cured. ¹⁹Then the disciples approached Jesus in private and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” ²⁰He said to them, “Because of your little faith. Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Because of your little faith. The disciples could not heal the boy with a demon and they themselves wonder why. They are mandated by Jesus to teach and to bring healing to people. Why then could they not do this?

The disciples’ inability to drive out this particular demon is ascribed to their “little faith.” Their faith is neither strong enough nor deep enough to drive it out of the boy’s body. In contrast, Jesus rebukes the demon and it comes out. The boy is immediately healed.

What kind of faith does the Lord want to see in us? Faith is more than just intellectual assent. It is a gift from God and is so powerful that even if it is as small as a mustard seed it can do wondrous things and reap great results. It can overcome all sorts of obstacles and difficulties. The disciples of Jesus could have healed the boy had their faith been deep and abiding.

“When night comes, and retrospect shows that everything was patchwork

and much that one had planned left undone,

when so many things rouse shame and regret,

then take all as is, lay it in God’s hands, and offer it up to him.

In this way we will be able to rest in him, actually to rest and to begin

the new day like a new life”

(St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross).