The Tenth Sunday After Pentecost (1 Cor. 4:9–16; Mt. 17:14–23)

“This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting” (Mt. 17:21). If this kind is cast out by the prayer and fasting of another person, then all the more it cannot enter one who has his own fasting and prayer. Here is a fence! Though there may be an abyss of demons and the whole air packed with them, they can do nothing to one who is protected by prayer and fasting. Fasting is all-encompassing self-restraint; prayer is all-encompassing communion with God. The former defends from without, while the latter launches from within a fiery panoply against the enemies. Demons sense a faster and a man of prayer from far off and flee far from him, so as not to receive a painful blow. Can one think that wherever there is no prayer and fasting, there is already a demon? One can. Demons, taking up residence in a person, do not always reveal their presence but lie hidden, secretly teaching their host every evil and turning him away from every good—so that he is certain he is doing everything himself, while in fact he is only fulfilling the will of his enemy. Only take up prayer and fasting, and the enemy will immediately depart, waiting on the sidelines for a chance to return—and indeed he does return, as soon as prayer and fasting are abandoned.