Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew

But when they heard these things, they do not ask Him when Elias comes; being straitened either by grief at His passion, or by fear. For on many occasions, upon seeing Him unwilling to speak a thing clearly, they are silent, and so an end. For instance, when during their abode in Galilee He said, “The Son of Man shall be betrayed, and they shall kill Him;” it is added by Mark, “That they understood not the saying, and were afraid to ask Him;” by Luke, “That it was hid from them, that they might not perceive it, and they feared to ask Him of that saying.”

3. “And when they had come to the multitude, there came to Him a man, kneeling down to Him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is lunatic, and sore vexed; for ofttimes he falls into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him unto Your disciples, and they could not cure him.”

This man the Scripture signifies to be exceedingly weak in faith; and this is many ways evident; from Christ's saying, “All things are possible to him that believes;” from the saying of the man himself that approached, “Help my unbelief:” from Christ's commanding the devil to “enter no more into him;” and from the man's saying again to Christ, “If You can.” “Yet if his unbelief was the cause,” it may be said, “that the devil went not out, why does He blame the disciples?” Signifying, that even without persons to bring the sick in faith, they might in many instances work a cure. For as the faith of the person presenting oftentimes availed for receiving the cure, even from inferior ministers; so the power of the doers oftentimes sufficed, even without belief in those who came to work the miracle.

And both these things are signified in the Scripture. For both they of the company of Cornelius by their faith drew unto themselves the grace of the Spirit; and in the case of Eliseus again, when none had believed, a dead man rose again. For as to those that cast him down, not for faith but for cowardice did they cast him, unintentionally and by chance, for fear of the band of robbers, and so they fled: while the person himself that was cast in was dead, yet by the mere virtue of the holy body the dead man arose.

Whence it is clear in this case, that even the disciples were weak; but not all; for the pillars were not present there. And see this man's want of consideration, from another circumstance again, how before the multitude he pleads to Jesus against His disciples, saying, “I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.”

But He, acquitting them of the charges before the people, imputes the greater part to him. For, “O faithless and perverse generation,” these are His words, “how long shall I be with you?” not aiming at his person only, lest He should confound the man, but also at all the Jews. For indeed many of those present might probably be offended, and have undue thoughts of them.

But when He said, “How long shall I be with you,” He indicates again death to be welcome to Him, and the thing an object of desire, and His departure longed for, and that not crucifixion, but being with them, is grievous.

He stopped not however at the accusations; but what says He? “Bring him hither to me.” And Himself moreover asks him, “how long time he is thus;” both making a plea for His disciples, and leading the other to a good hope, and that he might believe in his attaining deliverance from the evil.

And He suffers him to be torn, not for display (accordingly, when a crowd began to gather, He proceeded to rebuke him), but for the father's own sake, that when he should see the evil spirit disturbed at Christ's mere call, so at least, if in no other way, he might be led to believe the coming miracle.

And because he had said, “Of a child,” and, “If you can help me,” Christ says, “To him that believes, all things are possible,” again giving the complaint a turn against him. And whereas when the leper said, “If You will, You can make me clean,” bearing witness to His authority Christ commending him, and confirming His words, said, “I will, be thou clean;” in this man's case, upon his uttering a speech in no way worthy of His power—“If You can, help me,”— see how He corrects it, as not rightly spoken. For what says He? “If you can believe, all things are possible to him that believes.” What He says is like this: “Such abundance of power is with me, that I can even make others work these miracles. So that if you believe as one ought, even you yourself art able,” says He, “to heal both this one, and many others.” And having thus said, He set free the possessed of the devil.

But do thou not only from this observe His providence and His beneficence, but also from that other time, during which He allowed the devil to be in him. Since surely, unless the man had been favored with much providential care even then, he would have perished long ago; for “it cast him both into the fire,” so it is said, “and into the water.” And he that dared this would assuredly have destroyed the man too, unless even in so great madness God had put on him His strong curb: as indeed was the case with those naked men that were running in the deserts and cutting themselves with stones.

And if he call him “a lunatic,” trouble not yourself at all, for it is the father of the possessed who speaks the word. How then says the evangelist also, “He healed many that were lunatic?” Denominating them according to the impression of the multitude. For the evil spirit, to bring a reproach upon nature, by wine? For the weaker the vessel, the more entire the shipwreck, whether she be free or a slave. For the free woman behaves herself unseemly in the midst of her slaves as spectators, and the slave again in like manner in the midst of the slaves, and they cause the gifts of God to be blasphemously spoken of by foolish men.

For instance, I hear many say, when these excesses happen, “Would there were no wine.” O folly! O madness! When other men sin, do you find fault with God's gifts? And what great madness is this? What? Did the wine, O man, produce this evil? Not the wine, but the intemperance of such as take an evil delight in it. Say then, “Would there were no drunkenness, no luxury;” but if you say, “Would there were no wine,” you will say, going on by degrees, “Would there were no steel, because of the murderers; no night, because of the thieves; no light, because of the informers; no women, because of adulteries;” and, in a word, you will destroy all.

But do not so; for this is of a satanical mind; do not find fault with the wine, but with the drunkenness; and when you have found this self-same man sober, sketch out all his unseemliness, and say unto him, Wine was given, that we might be cheerful, not that we might behave ourselves unseemly; that we might laugh, not that we might be a laughingstock; that we might be healthful, not that we might be diseased; that we might correct the weakness of our body, not cast down the might of our soul.