The Word of the Gospel today highlights the incipient and already granitic faith of a pagan woman who asks for mercy for her daughter, tormented by a demon.
Francis of Assisi, a prophet of God, a stranger to the official institutional world, also did wondrous things in this regard.
The Poor Man, champion of faith in Christ, achieved healings by the power of the Spirit of God, in life and in death.
His life of faith infected many people who, benefiting from his testimony, were healed of evils and diabolic possessions.
In this regard, the Sources give us various episodes:
"There lived in Foligno a man named Peter. He was on his way to visit the sanctuary of St Michael the Archangel [...] When he arrived at a spring, tired and thirsty, he took a drink of water, and it seemed to him that he had swallowed demons. And indeed from that instant he remained obsessed for three years, saying and doing horrible things.
He took himself to the tomb of the most holy Father Francis, and arrived there still harassed by demons, more furious than ever against him; as soon as he touched the tomb, he was, with an evident and clear miracle, freed completely and forever" (FF 554).
And again Celano in the Vita Prima recounts the faith of a child healed by Francis:
"Matteo, a child from Todi, had been lying in a bed for eight days, more dead than alive: his mouth hermetically closed, his eyes shut tight, his face, hands and feet blackened like a cauldron on fire. Everyone thought there was nothing left to hope for.
One day the mother prostrated herself in prayer, invoking the name and help of Francis.
When she gets up, the child begins to open its eyes, to see and suck milk. Shortly afterwards, the black skin falls off, the flesh returns to its normal colour and regains vigour and health.
As soon as she sees him out of danger, the mother questions him: «Who cured you, my son?».
The child replies, stammering, «Ciccu, Ciccu».
Again they question him: «To whom do you owe this grace?». And the child replies: «Ciccu, Ciccu!» - thus halving the name of Francis, since he was still small and unable to speak well" (FF 556).
The little ones, in age but also in heart, obtain by Faith what adults cannot even ask for or desire.
A solid faith is an object of admiration by Jesus who works according to the desire of those who live it, generating new creatures.
«Woman, great is your faith! Let it happen for you as you wish» (Mt 15:28)
Wednesday of the 18th wk. in O.T. (Mt 15,21-28)
