Miracles:

1. Miracles: A sign or wonder, such as a healing or the control of nature, which can only be attributed to divine power. The miracles of Jesus were messianic signs of the presence of Gods kingdom

2. In studying the Gospel miracles one is impressed by the accounts given of their multitude. The Gospels speak only in the most general terms of the miracles Christ performed in the great missionary journeys through Galilee and Judea. Only a very small proportion of them is related in detail

3. We read that the people, seeing the things which He did, followed Him in crowds (Matt.4:25), to the number of 5000 (Luke 9:14) so that He could not enter the cities, and His fame spread from Jerusalem through Syria (Matt. 4:24).

4. His reputation was so great that the chief priests in council speak of Him as one who "does many miracles" (John 11:47), the disciples at Emmaus as the "prophet, mighty in work and word before God and all the people" (Luke 24:19), and St. Peter describes Him to Cornelius as the wonder-working preacher (Acts 10:38). Out of the great mass of miraculous events surrounding our Lord's person, the Evangelists made a selection. True, it was impossible to narrate all (John 20:30).

5. We can see in the narrated miracles a twofold reason for the selection. • The miracles of Christ have an evidential value. • The great purpose of the Redemption was the manifestation of God’s glory in the salvation of man through the life and work of His Incarnate Son.

6. The miracles of Christ have an evidential value In the first miracle at Cana Christ "manifested His glory", therefore the disciples "believed in Him" (John 2:11). Jesus constantly appealed to His "works" as evidences of His mission and His divinity. He declares that His miracles have greater evidential value than the testimony of John the Baptist (John 5:36); Their logical and theological force as evidences is expressed by Nicodemus (John 3:2).

7. And to the miracles Jesus adds the evidence of prophecy (John 5:31). Their value as evidences for the people then living is found not only in the display of omnipotence in His redeeming mission but also in the multitude of His works. Thus the unrecorded miracles had an evidential bearing on His mission. So we can see an evidential reason for the selection of the miracles as narrated in the Gospels.

8. And to the miracles Jesus adds the evidence of prophecy This selection was guided by a purpose to make clear the main events in Christ’s life leading up to the Crucifixion and to show that certain definite miracles (e.g., the cure of the lepers, the casting out of demons in a manner marvelously superior to the exorcisms of the Jews, the Sabbatical miracles, the raising of Lazarus) caused the rulers of the Synagogue to conspire and put Him to death.

9. A second reason for the selection was the expressed purpose to prove that Jesus was the Son of God (John 20:31). Thus, for us, who depend on the Gospel narratives, the evidential value of Christ’s miracles comes from a comparatively small number related in detail, though of a most stupendous and clearly supernatural kind, some of which were performed almost in private and followed by the strictest injunctions not to publish them.

10. the constant reference to the multitude of miracles unrecorded in detail, • their intimate connection with our Lord's teaching and life, • their relation to the prophecies of the Old Testament, • their own prophetic character as fulfilled in the development of His kingdom on earth. In considering them as evidences in relation to us now living, we may add to them

11. Their aim is the glory of God in the manifestation of Christ’s glory and in the salvation of men ·     As in the miracle of Cana (John 2:11), in the Transfiguration (Matt. 17), the Resurrection of Lazarus (John 11:15), Christ’s last prayer for the Apostles (John 17), the Resurrection of Christ (Acts 10:40). St. John opens his Gospel with the Incarnation of the Eternal Word and adds, "we saw his glory" (John 1:14). Hence Irenaeus (Adv. haer., V) and Athanasius (Incarn.) teach that the works of Christ were the manifestations of the Divine Word who in the beginning made all things and who in the Incarnation displayed His power over nature and man, as a manifestation of the new life imparted to man and a revelation of the character and purposes of God.

12. The repeated references in the Acts and in the Epistles to the "glory of Christ" have relation to His miracles. The source and purpose of the miracles of Christ is the reason for their intimate connection with His life and teaching. A saving and redeeming mission was the purpose of the miracles, as it was of the doctrine and life of the eternal Son of God.

13. Their motive was mercy. Most of Christ’s miracles were works of mercy. They were performed not with a view to awe men by the feeling of omnipotence, but to show compassion for sinful and suffering humanity. They are not to be regarded as isolated or transitory acts of sympathy, but as prompted by a deep and abiding mercy which characterizes the office of Savior. The Redemption is a work of mercy, and the miracles reveal the mercy of God in the works of His Incarnate Son (Acts 10:38).

14. We can see in them a symbolical character. They were signs, and in a special sense they signified by the typical language of external facts, the inward renewal of the soul. Thus, in commenting on the miracle of the widow's son at Naim, St. Augustine says that Christ raised three from the death of the body, but thousands from the death of sin to the life of Divine grace (Serm. de verbis Dom., xcviii, al. xliv). The relief which Christ brought to the body represented the deliverance He was working on souls. His miracles of cures and healings were the visible picture of His spiritual work in the warfare with evil.

15. His miracles of cures and healings were the visible picture of His spiritual work in the warfare with evil. These miracles, summarized in the answer of Jesus to the messengers of John (Matt. 11:5), are explained by the Fathers of the Church with reference to the ills of the soul. The motive and meaning of the miracles explain the moderation Christ showed in the use of His infinite power. Repose in strength is a sublime trait in the character of Jesus; it comes from the conscious possession of power to be used for the good of men. Rousseau confesses "All the miracles of Jesus were useful without pomp or display, but simple as His words, His life, His whole conduct" (Lettr. de la Montag., pt. I, lett. iii).

16. He does not perform them for the sake of being a mere worker of miracles. Everything He does has a meaning when viewed in the relation Christ holds to men. In the class known as miracles of power Jesus does not show a mere mental and moral superiority over ordinary men. In virtue of His redeeming mission He proves that He is Lord and Master of the forces of nature.

17. Thus by a word He stills the tempest, by a word He multiplied a few loaves and fishes so that thousands feasted and were filled, by a word He healed lepers, drove out demons, raised the dead to life, and finally set the great seal upon His mission by rising from death, as He had explicitly foretold.

18. Hence the miracles of Christ have a doctrinal import. • They have a vital connection with His teaching and mission, • illustrate the nature and purpose of His kingdom, • and show a connection with some of the greatest doctrines and principles of His Church. Its catholicity is shown in the miracles of the centurion's servant (Matt. 8) and the Syro-phoenician woman (Mark 7).

19. Hence the miracles of Christ have a doctrinal import. The Sabbatical miracles reveal its purpose, the salvation of men, and show that Christ’s Kingdom marks the passing of the Old Dispensation. His miracles teach the power of faith and the answer given to prayer.

20. The central truth of His teaching was life. He came to give life to men, and this teaching is emphasized by raising the dead to life, especially in the case of Lazarus and His own Resurrection.

21. The sacramental teaching of the miracles is manifested in the miracle of Cana (John 2), in the cure of the paralytic, to show he had the power to forgive sins [and he used this power (Matt. 9) and gave it to the Apostles (John, 20:23) ], in the multiplication of the loaves (John 6) and in raising the dead.

22. Jesus accompanies his words with many "mighty works and wonders and signs," which manifest that the kingdom is present in him and attest that he was the promised Messiah. Acts 2:22 The signs worked by Jesus attest that the Father has sent him. They invite belief in him. Jn 5:36; 10:25, 38 To those who turn to him in faith, he grants what they ask. Mk 5:25-34; 10:52

23. So miracles strengthen faith in the One who does his Father's works; they bear witness that he is the Son of God. Jn 10:31-38 But his miracles can also be occasions for "offense"; Mt 11:6 they are not intended to satisfy people's curiosity or desire for magic.

24. Despite his evident miracles some people reject Jesus; he is even accused of acting by the power of demons. Jn 11:47-48; Mk 3:22 By freeing some individuals from the earthly evils of hunger, injustice, illness and death, Jn 6:5-15; Lk19:8; Mt 11:5 Jesus performed messianic signs.

25. Nevertheless he did not come to abolish all evils here below, Lk 12:13-14; Jn 18:36 but to free men from the gravest slavery, sin, which thwarts them in their vocation as God's sons and causes all forms of human bondage. Jn 8:34-36

26. Miracles: The signs of the Kingdom of GodThe coming of God's kingdom means the defeat of Satan's: "If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.“ Mt 12:26,28 Jesus' exorcisms free some individuals from the domination of demons. They anticipate Jesus‘ great victory over "the ruler of this world.“ Jn 12:31; Lk 8:26-39

27. Miracles: The signs of the Kingdom of God The kingdom of God will be definitively established not through miracles but through Christ's cross: "God reigned from the wood.“ (ccc 547-550)