A serious Complaint

Today’s Gospel Text: And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and kneeling before him said, 15 "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; for often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16 And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him." 17 And Jesus answered, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me." 18 And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" 20 He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you." Matt 17:14-20

Reflection:  A complaint is born out of an offense or wrong committed.

I can’t imagine, at least in our times any one coming forward and complaining to anyone's superiors that their priest or juniors couldn’t heal an epileptic.

We have forgotten that such situations exist in our times and we would rather prefer to send them to psychiatrists, or some priests may even push them on to the black magician rather than an exorcist, if the diocese has one..

Years ago, there was similar situation in which a young girl showed a clear sign of manifestation of an epileptic like attack.  She would go for communion and the moment she would get close to receive communion, she would swoon away. 

The priest in charge ruled it out as case of weakness and encouraged her parents to have her taken to a medical practitioner. It was only under a lay expert that she found deliverance, through the grace of the Lord.

If a situation like this, in the Gospel, could make the Lord express in great frustration, how much more in our generation when individuals do not want to believe in the supernatural influences, which are the cause of many of our bondage's and diseases.

There is a serious need for those in authority, those in ministry and all those who call themselves disciples of Jesus, to hear the Lord’s rebuke again and to mend their ways; "O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?”

Prayer: Lord, help me to submit as I realize that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities in the heavenly places and these we are called to vanquish. 

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