Luke 9:41

Certain places accord with certain events. On the Mount our Lord prays, is transfigured, reveals the secrets of His glory to His disciples; as He descends to the lower parts, He is received by a large concourse. As it is said, And it came to pass, that on the next day, when he was come down from the hill, much people met him. Above He makes known the voice of the Father, below He expels the evil spirits. Hence it follows, And, behold, a man of the company cried out, saying, Master, I beseech you look upon my son.

It seems indeed to me that this was a wise man. For he said not to the Savior, “Do this or that,” but, Look on my son, for this suffices for His salvation; as the prophet said, Look on me, and have mercy on me; and he says, on my son, to show that his was a reasonable forwardness in crying out aloud among the multitude. He adds, for he is my only child. As if to say, There is none other I can expect to be the consolation of my old age. He next enters into the sufferings, that he may move his Hearer to compassion, saying, And, lo, the spirit takes him. He then seems to accuse the disciples, but his answer is rather a justification of his casting aside his fear, saying, And I besought your disciples to cast him out: and they could not. As if he said, Think not that I have come lightly to You. Marvelous is Your greatness! I did not intrude upon Your presence at once, but went first to Your disciples. Because they failed to work the cure, I am now compelled to approach You. Our Lord therefore does not blame him, but the faithless generation; for it follows, And Jesus answering said, Of faithless and perverse generation.

But that this man was much weakened in faith, the writings of the Gospel show us in several places. In that place where he says, Help you my unbelief; and, If you can. And in that where Christ said, All things are possible to him that believes, &c.

Hence it seems to me more correct to account the father of the demoniac unbelieving, because he also casts reproach upon the holy Apostles, saying that they could not subdue the evil spirits. But it were better to have sought favor from God by honoring Him, for He has respect to them that fear Him. But he who says that those are weak with respect to their power over evil spirits, who have obtained that power from Christ, calumniates rather the grace than those who are adorned with that grace in whom Christ works. Christ is therefore offended with the accusation of the saints, to whom was entrusted the word of holy preaching. Wherefore the Lord rebukes him and those like-minded with him, saying, O faithless and perverse generation. As if He said, Because of your unbelief the grace has not received its accomplishment.

Now He does not direct His words to him alone but to all the Jews, lest He should cause him to doubt. For it must have been that many were offended

By the word perverse, He shows that this wickedness in them was not originally or by nature, for by nature indeed they were upright, being the seed of Abraham, but became perverted through malice.

As if not knowing how to continue in the right beginnings. Now Christ disdains to dwell with those who are thus disposed. Hence He says, How long shall I be with you, and suffer you? Feeling troubled with their company, because of their evil deeds.

Hereby also He shows that His departure was desired by Him, not because the suffering of the cross was grievous, but rather their conversation.

Not that weariness has overcome His patience, but after the manner of a physician, when he sees a sick man acting contrary to his commands, he says, How long shall I come to your house when I order one thing, you do another. But to prove that He was not angry with the man, but with the sin, He immediately added, Bring your son hither.

He might indeed have healed him by His simple command, but He makes his sufferings public, bringing, the weak in faith to the sight of things present. Then the devil, when he perceived our Lord, rends and dashes the child down; as it follows, And as he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down, and tore him; that so first the sufferings should be made manifest, then the remedy be applied.

The Lord however does this not for display, but for the father’s sake, that upon seeing the devil disturbed at the mere summons, he might thus at least be led to the belief of the future miracles; of which it follows, And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and delivered him again to his father.

Now before not his father but the devil possessed him, but now the Evangelist adds that the people were astonished at the greatness of God, saying, And all were amazed at the mighty power of God, which he says, because of the gift of Christ, who conferred on the holy Apostles also the power of working divine miracles, and having the mastery over evil spirits.

Now in a mystical manner in proportion to their deserts does our Lord daily ascend to some men, seeing that the perfect and those whose conversation is in heaven, He glorifies by exalting higher, instructing them in things eternal, and teaching them things which can not be heard by the multitude, but to others he descends, in that He strengthens the earthly and foolish men, teaching and chastening them. Now this demoniac Matthew calls a lunatic; Mark, deaf and dumb. Matthew signifies those who change as the moon, increasing and decreasing through different vices, Mark those, who are dumb in not confessing the faith, deaf in not hearings the very word of faith. While the boy is coming to our Lord, he is dashed to the ground; because men when turned to the Lord are often grievously afflicted by the devil, that he may instill a hatred of virtue, or revenge the injury of his expulsion. As in the beginning of the Church he waged as many fierce conflicts as he had to bewail losses suddenly brought upon His kingdom. But our Lord rebukes not the boy who suffered violence, but the evil spirit who inflicted it; for he who desires to correct the sinner, ought by reproof and abhorrence to drive away the vice, but to revive the man by gentleness, until he can restore him to the spiritual father of the Church. 43b. - But while they wondered every one at all things which Jesus did, he said to his disciples,

I take on myself the character of Israel. Let Marcion’s Christ stand forth, and exclaim, “O faithless generation! how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?” He will immediately have to submit to this remonstrance from me: “Whoever you are, O stranger, first tell us who you are, from whom you come, and what right you have over us. Thus far, all you possess belongs to the Creator. Of course, if you come from Him, and are acting for Him, we will bear your reproof. But if you come from some other god, I should wish you to tell us what you have ever committed to us belonging to yourself, which it was our duty to believe, seeing that you are upbraiding us with ‘faithlessness,’ who have never yet revealed to us your own self. …

116. Matthew goes on in the following terms: “And when He was come to the multitude, there came to Him a certain man, kneeling down before Him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son; for he is lunatic, and sore vexed;” and so on, down to the words, “Howbeit this kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting.” Both Mark and Luke record this incident, and that, too, in the same order, without any suspicion of a want of harmony.