Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is epileptic, and is very ill: for often he falls into the fire, and often into the water.
All Commentaries on Matthew 17:15 Go To Matthew 17
Theophylact of Ochrid
AD 1107
. That this man is exceedingly faithless is clear from the words which Christ spoke in reply to him, "O faithless generation," and from the fact that the man himself blamed the disciples. The moon was not the cause, but rather, the demon would take note when the moon was full, and then would set upon his victim, so that men would blaspheme the created works of God as maleficent. You, then, O reader, understand that it is a foolish man that changes as the moon, as it is written (Sirach 27:11), at times waxing great in virtue, at other times waning and vanishing altogether. Then the foolish man becomes deranged and falls down into the fire of anger and lust, and into water, that is, the waves of the many cares of life, in which Leviathan the devil dwells, he who reigns over the waters. For are not the cares of the rich like waves that follow each other in quick succession?
