I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, "Move from here to there," and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you

 And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water.  So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him."  Then Jesus answered and said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?  How long shall I bear with you?  Bring him here to Me."  And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.  Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?"  So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.  However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."

- Matthew 17:14-21

On Saturday we read that after six days (after Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ, and Jesus' first warning about His crucifixion, death, and Resurrection) Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them.  His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.  And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.  Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles:  one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."  While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.  Hear Him!"  And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid.  But Jesus came and touched them and said, "Arise, and do not be afraid."  When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.  Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, "Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead."  And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things.  But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished.  Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands."  Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.

 And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water.  So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him."   Then Jesus answered and said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?  How long shall I bear with you?  Bring him here to Me."  And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.   My study bible reminds us that in Scripture sickness is often connected to demonic activity.  This father shows humility by kneeling before Christ, but what he lacks is faith.  The verses further down give us the indication that the disciples also lacked faith.  But here in public, Jesus rebukes the man for putting the blame on the disciples when it was his greater lack of faith that prevented the boy's healing.   As my study bible notes, Jesus effectively defends His disciples in front of the multitudes but later rebukes them privately.  It teaches us that we should first correct people in private.  Jesus' love prevents Him from humiliating His disciples before the crowd, but they receive the truth from Him in private.

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?"  So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.  However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."  According to St. John Chrysostom, Jesus' rebuke here is directed to the nine disciples who could not cast out the demon.  The "pillars" of faith -- Peter, James, and John (Galatians 2:9) -- were not included, as they had been on the mountain with Christ (see Saturday's reading, above).  This kind, my study bible tells us, refers to all powers of darkness, and not only those that cause a particular illness.  The banishment of demons, it says, requires faith, prayer, and fasting.  There is no healing nor victory in spiritual warfare without all three.  Starting with the earliest teaching document of the Church, the Didache, it has been taught that both the person in need of healing and the person performing the healing must believe, pray, and fast.  The emphasis on faith here is doubled, as Jesus repeats metaphors He uses elsewhere:  the mustard seed and moving a mountain.

With growing awareness both of Jesus' divinity (especially through the experience of the Transfiguration, see Saturday's reading) and also of the suffering, crucifixion, death, and Resurrection to come, Jesus places an ever-greater emphasis on faith as the true foundation or rock of His Church.  The repetition of metaphors in the text (faith as a mustard seed and faith that moves a mountain) gives us a sense of something so crucial that it was echoed throughout His ministry.  This repetition bears noting, because it's not often that we hear Jesus repeating Himself in the texts of individual Gospels.  It teaches us, to my way of thinking, that the crucial aspect of faith is something so substantial and important that we must never lose sight of it.  It's what He wants to leave us with as we await His return.  It's what we have as bearers of His word, His truth, and His work in us, and it connects us to His very presence in our lives.  It is indeed the rock upon which He would build His Church, the way in which we worship, the strength against which the gates of Hades cannot prevail (16:18).  In this perspective, activities such as prayer and fasting become essential not simply as practice for the sake of belonging or tradition, but rather for the power they have to shore up our faith, to protect us within that bond of faith, and to give us strength within that faith.  These are not concepts nor practices simply designed to put us in line or to give us things to do that reflect identity in Christ.  They are practices that help us to maintain the strength and power and inclusion that we need via faith.  They include us in the bond of the rock of faith, so that we remain in His protection in that faith, and find our way through the difficulties we encounter -- including temptations and all the things of the world that will serve to draw us away from the path to which He calls us (7:13-14).  Particularly in times of uncertainty and fear, these practices help not simply to shore up faith, but to help us when faith is difficult or when we are confused.  Prayer is an act of communion with God.  Fasting is a kind of declaration that it is God we serve above all, and that we exchange our attachments in the world in order to find a deeper and truer communion with God.  We can fast in so many ways; abstinence in whatever form necessary is a way of fasting -- for example, from swearing, from habits of anger or whatever it is that takes us away from our peace which is centered in Christ.  Let us note as well the deeply personal and even private nature of these practices.  While each is appropriate in the context of community worship, each also has an aspect of the personal.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches us to go into our inner room and shut the door, and pray to our Father who sees in secret (6:6).  Sometimes we need to close the door to all the noise, and focus in on what is essential.  Prayer and fasting help us do that.   Consider the importance of faith, and that we need to all that we can to help ourselves to be centered in our connection and communion with Christ, so that we may come to ourselves when we're not sure where we're going.