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Faith & Trust (Mt. 17:14-20)

'When they came to the crowd a man approached, knelt down before him, and said, “Lord, have pity on my son, for he is a lunatic and suffers severely; often he falls into fire, and often into water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.” Jesus 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.” Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him, and from that hour the boy was cured. Then the disciples approached Jesus in private and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” He 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 (Mt. 17:14-20).”

There is a contrast between the man’s faith and trust in Jesus, and the faith and trust of the disciples.  Through faith, the boy’s father kneeled, addressed Jesus as ‘Lord’ and trusted in Jesus to cure his son.  The disciples had a faith based on what they experienced as they accompanied Jesus.  They received power from Jesus (Mt. 10:1) and believed that could exorcise the demon, but they fell short on trust.  It was not by their own power that the demon would be cast out.  Jesus said, “Without me you can do nothing (Jn. 15:5).”  A trusting faith in God is an important part in prayer and healing.  It is difficult not to be distracted by the turmoil of everyday life, but we must be constant in our practice of the faith so we can have the will to live by our faith and the trust that he will always take care of us.

Almighty God, we come before you because of the gift of faith you have given us.  With our free will we can live our lives according to our plan and call on you when things are not going well.  Grant us the grace to trust in you so that we can live our lives by your will and not ours.  This we pray through Christ our Lord.  Amen!

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References:

Raymond E. Brown, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, & Roland E. Murphy, (Eds.). (1990, 1968). The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentis Hall, Inc.

Jose M. Casciaro, Santiago Ausin, Gonzalo Aranda, Claudio Basevi, Vincente Balaguer, Francisco Varo, James Gavigan, Brian McCarthy & Thomas McGovern (Eds.). (2017). The Navarre Bible - New Testament. Dublin 8, Ireland: Four Courts Press.

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