CatholicTheology.info

Choose a topic from Part 3a:

• The Incarnation
• Our Blessed Lady
• Our Lord Jesus Christ
  • 31. Our Lord's Body
  • 32. The Conception of Christ
  • 33. The Mode of Our Lord's Conception
  • 34. The Perfection of Our Lord Before His Birth
  • 35. The Nativity of Christ
  • 36. The Manifestation of the New-Born Christ
  • 37. Legal Observances Regarding the Christ Child
  • 38. The Baptism of St. John the Baptist
  • 39. The Baptizing of Christ by St. John the Baptist
  • 40. Our Lord's Life
  • 41. The Temptation in the Desert
  • 42. The Preaching of Christ
  • 43. The Miracles of Christ: In General
  • 44. Miracles of Christ: In Particular
  • 45. The Transfiguration
  • 46. The Passion of Christ
  • 47. The Effecting Cause of the Passion
  • 48. The Efficacy of the Passion of Christ
  • 49. Actual Effects of the Passion of Christ
  • 50. The Death of Our Lord
  • 51. The Burial of Our Lord
  • 52. The Descent Into Hell
  • 53. The Resurrection
  • 54. The Risen Christ
  • 55. The Manifestation of the Risen Christ
  • 56. Causal Power of the Resurrection
  • 57. The Ascension
  • 58. Our Lord at the Father's Right Hand
  • 59. Our Lord's Power as Judge
• The Sacraments in General
• Baptism
• Confirmation
• The Holy Eucharist
• Penance

43. The Miracles of Christ: In General

1. Our Lord performed many miracles to prove his teachingtrue, and especially to manifest the leading truth of all histeaching, namely, that he himself is true God as well as true man.Thus he could say to the people (John 10:37, 38): "If I do notthe works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though youwill not believe me, believe the works: that you may know andbelieve that the Father is in me, and I in the Father."

2. The miracles of Christ, like all miracles, are works ofdivine power. For a miracle is, by definition, a work thatsurpasses all power of creatures. Christ is God, and can directlyexercise the divine power in working miracles; as man, Christ isthe instrument through which the miracles are wrought.

3. St. John says (2:11) that the changing of water to wineat Cana was the first of the miracles wrought by our Lord. Christwas then about thirty years of age, and was about to enter upon hispublic ministry. St. John Chrysostom says that it would not havebeen fitting for Christ to work miracles when he was young, beforehe was ready to begin his public life; for then men would havecrucified him before his time.

4. Our Lord said (John 5:36): "The works which theFather hath given me to perfect . . . give testimony of me, thatthe Father hath sent me." The miracles of Christ are a fullproof of his divinity: (a) by their very nature as miracles wroughtfor the purpose; (b) by their manner, as wrought under Christ'sown authority; (c) by the fact that Christ plainly adduced them inproof of his divinity, calling people's attention to them asirrefutable evidence.

"God commands not impossibilities, but by commanding he suggests to you to do what you can, to ask for what is beyond your strength; and he helps you, that you may be able."
St Augustine

* * *

"Spiritual persons ought to be equally ready to experience sweetness and consolation in the things of God, or to suffer and keep their ground in drynesses of spirit and devotion, and for as long as God pleases, without their making any complaint about it."
St Philip Neri

* * *

"The essence of perfection is to embrace the will of God in all things, prosperous or adverse. In prosperity, even sinners find it easy to unite themselves to the divine will; but it takes saints to unite themselves to God's will when things go wrong and are painful to self-love. Our conduct in such instances is the measure of our love of God."
St Alphonsus de Liguori

* * *

Copyright