ACC ~ Matthew 17 v19

WHY COULD NOT WE CAST IT OUT?

HILARY OF POITIERS: The disciples are surprised that they could not throw out the demon. All power, not only of besting demons but even of raising the dead, had been given them. [1] Furthermore, because the law was soon to be transcended, Jesus says, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you?” He does not seem to be saying this to those whom he had set apart. Those who did not have faith were going to lose the very law that they had. If they had had this faith within them, they would have been like the grain of mustard seed. By the power of the Word they would have thrown out this burden of sins and the heavy mass of their unbelief. They would have transferred it, like a mountain into the sea, to the activity of the pagans and secular people. ON MATTHEW 17.8. [2]

[1] Mt 10:8.

[2] SC 258:68.

PRAYING TO CAST OUT ONE’S OWN DEMONS

AUGUSTINE: In this chapter the Lord urged us to pray when he said, “Because of your little faith you could not cast out this demon.” For urging us to prayer he thus concluded, “This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” [1] If a man prays so that he may throw out someone else’s demon, how much more so that he may cast out his own avarice? How much more so that he may cast out his own drunkenness? How much more so that he may cast out his own dissipation? How much more so that he may cast out his own impurity? How great are the sins in human beings! If they persevere in them, they do not allow them to enter the kingdom of heaven! SERMON 80.3. [2]

[1] Cf. Mk 9:29; Augustine is quoting a variant from Mt 17:20.

[2] PL 38:495; NPNF 1 6:350 (Sermon 30).

Mt