Message of Abbot Paul - Saturday 12th August 2023

Message from Fr Paul for Saturday, 12th August 2023

 These past few days my messages have been on the long side, so today I’ll be brief for a change, mainly because I’m dead tired. It’s hard to believe that I went over to Italy for the weekend a fortnight ago: it’s beginning to feel like a lifetime. While I was there, I slept eight hours each night and had time to relax and read. Since I returned, there have been nights when I’ve barely managed four hours’ sleep, my usual quota being around four and a half. I’m not complaining, it’s simply a fact. I wish it were different. I can sense what it was like for Jesus and his disciples,

 In today’s Gospel, (Mt 17: 14-20), Jesus is confronted by a father whose son was possessed by an unclean spirit, although his father calls him a lunatic. Nevertheless, he loves the boy and approaches Jesus on his knees, pleading for mercy and compassion. “Lord, take pity on my son: he is a lunatic and in a wretched state; he is always falling into the fire or into the water. I took him to your disciples and they were unable to cure him.” Jesus appears angered by his disciples’ inability to cure the boy. On the other hand, it could also be the lack of faith of those who ask for a cure. He says, “Faithless and perverse generation! How much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.”

Matthew tells us that Jesus alone can cure the boy. “When Jesus rebuked it, the devil came out of the boy who was cured from that moment.” We hear no more of the boy or of his father, for the focus of the story is on the inability of the disciples to cure the boy.

 “Then the disciples came privately to Jesus. ‘Why were we unable to cast it out?’ they asked. He answered, ‘Because you have little faith. I tell you solemnly, if your faith were the size of a mustard seed you could say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it would move; nothing would be impossible for you.’” The disciples can’t understand why they were unable to heal the boy and Jesus explains that it’s their lack of faith, combined with a lack of prayer. Some spirits, most spirits I would say, can only be cast out by faith and prayer. If one or the other is missing, then we are powerless to heal. Faith the size of a mustard seed would suffice. No one wants to move mountains, but we would like to help those in need. So let us pray, Lord, increase our faith, so that we can help others. Amen.