Author: Msgr. Charles Pope

As a pastor I get asked every now and then, “Why are there not more miracles in our day, like there were in the Bible?” I suppose there are two answers we could explore.

One of the answers must surely be that we do not really expect miracles.

Another answer is that when they do happen we often dismiss them by rationalizing them, or chalking them up to coincidence or to some unknown reason that scientists will surely be able to explain some day.

The bottom line is that we are not living in an age of faith. And faith is to miracles as cause is to effect.

Many say, “If I saw miracles I would believe.” But the biblical answer is, unless you believe, you will not see miracles.

Consider and excerpt of the first reading from Monday of this week:

At Lystra there was a crippled man, lame from birth, who had never walked. He listened to Paul speaking, who looked intently at him, saw that he had the faith to be healed, and called out in a loud voice, “Stand up straight on your feet.” He jumped up and began to walk about. Acts 14:7-10

Note that Paul was able to heal the crippled man because he saw he had the faith to be healed. Faith precedes miracles. There are many places in the Scriptures where faith and miracles are linked:

1. When Jesus had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you”; and their sight was restored. (Matt 9:28-29
2. “O unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.” So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?” “From childhood,” he answered. “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” …Jesus rebuked the evil spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” (Mk 9:19-29)
3. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive [the Demon] out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matt 17:19-20
4. Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.” (Lk 18:42)
5. Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that moment. (Matt 9:22)
6. Jesus could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. He was amazed at their lack of faith. (Mk 6:5-6)
7. Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour. (Matt 15:28)
8. “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road. (Mark 10:52
9. Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:19)

And on and on the quotes could go.

The key point is that faith is the essential ingredient for miracles. There must be faith not only on the part of the one who works it, but even more so on the part of the one who receives the miracle. For it may sometimes happen that the one through whom the miracle is accomplished, has only poor faith, but the one receiving it has the faith to be healed, and thus God grants it.

Of this I have (to my shame) been a witness.  But, I will say I have grown. For on some occasions in my priesthood God has worked miraculous cures when I was sent to anoint the sick or to pray over and with people.

1. On one occasion, many years ago I was sent to anoint a man near death. He was filled with cancer, in the pancreas, liver and bone. No hope said the doctors. His daughter sent me with the confident expectation that I could heal him. But, truthfully, I went more with the intention of giving “last rites” in order to prepare him for death. But God was not defeated by me, the faith of that man and his daughter prevailed. The next day his vitals changed and the surprised doctors found no trace of cancer in subsequent scans. He lived on another ten years and I always called him Lazarus.
2. On other occasion a few years ago, I was summoned early one morning to the hospital. The doctors had announced a certain end for a parishioner and her tearful relatives were gathered in a death watch. The decision had been reached to pull the breathing tube, and the doctors offered no hope and were “sure” the woman would die in moments after the tube was pulled. But this woman had surprised us before. And by now, I had learned my lesson, that God was in charge, no matter what the doctors said. And I told that family just before I anointed her, not to be so sure what would happen or when, that God was in charge, and that people don’t necessarily go right away even when the doctors say so. And when I finished the anointing, I prayed, “Lord, If you want to, you can heal her, I know you can” and the Amens murmured among the family.” Next morning, Mrs. J was up for breakfast, issuing orders to family and stating that hospital food was disagreeable to her.
3. And I want also to give God the glory for the many miracles he has worked in terms of spiritual healing, healings in my own life and soul, healing in the lives of many I have known. Deliverance from anxiety and depression, deliverance from anger and addiction; the sudden and miraculous capacity to forgive, or to let go of crippling grief; the gradual healing to go from serious sins to freedom, to go from tepidity to deeper and deeper love of God. Yes, I walked along side of many who exhibit miraculous healing, of this same healing I too am a witness. And the healing defies any rational explanation.

Yes, even a little faith, mustard seed faith. Just the faith that says, “Father Pope, will you pray for me?” Or, “Father I will pray for you.” Faith the size of a mustard seed. If I take one step God takes two. The miracles are many.

The gift to be sought – Perhaps in times like these where we often do not expect miracles or dismiss them too easily when they occur, the gift to be sought is the gift of the fear of the Lord.

At its heart, the fear of the Lord is the awareness of the wonderful things God is always doing in our life from moment to moment. It is the gift of wonder and awe before the displayed majesty of our God, and a desire not to offend him out of love and respect.

And frankly, one way we might offend against his glory is to walk right past the glories he is doing from moment to moment, being ungrateful, unaware, and seeing as routine, the magnificence of what he does. The color purple, the magnificent stars, the quirky yet wonderful people in our life, indeed, our very own existence, all these and countless other wonders are on daily display. And seeing them for the miraculous gift they are begins to open our minds to the possibility of miracles too.

The gift of the fear of the Lord helps to increase our awareness of God and our faith in Him. And faith is the door to even greater miracles.

Are you ready for a miracle? The Lord has a related question for us: Do you believe that I can do this? (Matt 9:28)

It is true, God sometimes says no, and we have discussed that HERE before. But perhaps we ought also to check our attitude, and ask why we might be quick to presume he will say no or has said no. Scripture says, “Ye have not because ye ask not” (James 4:2). Why not ask with confidence and leave the answer up to God.

Why are there fewer miracles today? You tell me.

Here’s a song about wonder and awe.

Cardinal Wuerl shared with the priests of this Archdiocese (at the Chrism Mass last month) the full remarks of Pope Benedict that were given during the ad limina visit by bishops of this region. I had seen excerpts, but never the full set of remarks. They are powerful and ought to receive careful consideration by us all.

To that end, I would like to share substantial excerpts and offer a few reflections of my own. As is usual the original text is in bold, black italic text. My own comments are in red plain text.

For her part, the Church in the United States is called, in season and out of season, to proclaim a Gospel which not only proposes unchanging moral truths but proposes them precisely as the key to human happiness and social prospering.

A good reminder to us and to the world. We do not propose the vision of the Gospel merely as a set of prohibitions. Neither do we propose it merely because we wish to advance our right to speak out and make our voice heard in the world of ideas. Rather we proclaim the Gospel because we passionately believe that these truths are the key to happiness, salvation and every other good. In the past missionaries set out to distant lands and made great personal sacrifices, often losing their own life, because they had a love and passion for people and understood that the vision of God was essential for the salvation and well being of all.  The loss of the gospel vision, the forgetfulness of God and confusion about the true purpose of human life has caused great harm. If we as a Church truly believe that the Gospel has answers and the remedy for our time, we must speak out. To remain silent or to allow ourselves to be compelled to silence would be sinful and selfish. The Church must say as St. Paul did: For I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! (1 Cor 9:16).

To the extent that some current cultural trends contained elements that would curtail the proclamation of these truths, whether constricting it within the limits of a purity scientific rationality, or suppressing it in the name of political power or majority rule, they represent a threat not just Christian faith, but also to humanity itself and to the deepest truth about our being and ultimate vocation, relationship to God. When a culture attempts to suppress the dimension of ultimate Mystery, and to close the doors to transcendent truth, it inevitably becomes impoverished and falls prey, as the late Pope John Paul II so clearly saw, to reductionist and totalitarian readings of the human person and the nature of society.

In effect, the Pope is reminding us that what we announce is not merely something that is “meaningful,” but something which is true. And the opposite of true is not “less meaningful,” it is false. Falsehood and error harm the human person. Truth liberates and enriches. The suppression of the truth is the main cause of our suffering and poverty.

The reductionist and totalitarian readings to which the Pope refers have caused grave harm to the world because they are false. It is conservatively estimated that 100 Million people lost their lives in the 20th century due to totalitarian, materialist, fascists, secular and atheistic movements.

In current times the suffering continues as the West suffers from low birth rates, the horror of abortion, the advancing destruction of the family, distortion in the understanding of sexuality, and crippling debt as our spending swirls out of control. These too stem from reductionist understandings of the human person, creation, and the meaning human life.

Alienated from God, we lose our way and come to think we answer to no one. Thus, we become increasingly dangerous.  Alienated from the truth we descend into the tyranny of relativism where reason cannot win the day and thus power does.

The Gospel is true. And the opposite of true is not just “another opinion,” it is false. And error leads to great suffering. The Church must continue to proclaim and propose the truth without compromise. For only the truth will set us free, and the Gospel is truth.

With her long tradition of respect for the right relationship between faith and reason, the Church has a critical role to play in countering cultural currents which, on the basis of an extreme individualism, seek to promote notions of freedom detached from moral truth. Our tradition does not speak from blind faith, but from a rational perspective which links our commitment to building an authentically just, humane and prosperous society, to our ultimate assurance that the cosmos is possessed of an inner logic accessible to human reasoning.

Magnificent. The appeal not only to Scripture, but also to reason and to Natural Law, (which the Pope speaks of as the “inner logic” of the cosmos), is what distinguishes Catholicism from simple fundamentalism. We reason from Scripture with ourselves and among believers, but we also appeal to reason and Natural Law, especially with those we do not share our belief in the Scriptures as the Word of God.

Our sacred teaching is both thoughtful and deeply rooted in a long and careful philosophical and theological tradition stretching back thousands of years. What we teach and proclaim is neither simplistic nor ephemeral. It is careful, well thought out, and has stood the test of time.

It has also helped enormously in the development of a more humane and caring world as the Gospel’s message of love and forgiveness has born fruit in hospitals, orphanages,  universities, and the cultivation of the arts and sciences in the Christian West.

We abandon this wisdom and ancient teaching to our peril.

The Church’s defense of this law is not a threat to our freedom, but rather a “language” which enables us to understand ourselves and the truth of our being, and so to shape a more just and humane world. She thus proposes her moral teaching as a message not of constraint but of liberation, and as a basis for building a secure future.

Yes, As St. Paul said: I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes (Rom 1:16) And salvation here is not merely a heavenly reality, but one which on earth we experience as a kind of foretaste. The Gospel saves in the age to come and bestows health and help now as well.

The Church’s witness, then, is of it’s nature public: she seeks to convince by proposing rational arguments in the public square. The legitimate separation of Church and State cannot be taken to mean that the church must be silent on certain issues, nor that the State may choose not to engage, or be engaged by the voices of committed believers in determining the values which will shape the future of the nation.

Here again the premise is that silence is deadly. And whether that silence is due to the sinful omission by believers of their evangelical duty, or whether that silence is somehow compelled by the State, either way, evil triumphs when the voice of faith is silent.

In light of these considerations, it is imperative that the entire Catholic community in United States come to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres. The seriousness of these threats needs to be clearly appreciated at every level of ecclesial life. Of particular concern are certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion. Many of you [Bishops] have pointed out that concerted efforts have been made to deny the right of conscientious objection on the part of Catholic individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation in intrinsically evil practices. Others have spoken to me of a worrying tendency to reduce religious freedom to mere freedom of worship without guarantees of respect for freedom of conscience.

Cardinal Wuerl has frequently commented that religious liberty is being increasingly construed by many to mean only the freedom to worship inside the walls of our Church and that otherwise, religious speech or expression has no place in the public discussion. This sort of thinking has been making incremental advances in our culture. And, while every other form of speech is to be tolerated in the public square, religious, and specifically Christian speech is attacked as “out of place” and in violation of the Constitution (which it is not). But this thinking is growing and hindering the Church’s critical mission to evangelize and speak the truth in love.

Further, religious liberty is not merely a right of the the Church. It is an individual right of every American to both proclaim and openly live their faith, and not be compelled to act against their faith. The First Amendment is not applied only to organizations or the Church, but to the individual.

Here once more we see the need for an engaged, articulate and well formed Catholic laity endowed with a strong critical sense vis-à-vis the dominant culture, and with the courage to counter a reductive secularism which would delegitimize the Church’s participation in public debate about the issues which are determining the future of American society. The preparation of committed lay leaders and the presentation of a convincing articulation of the Christian vision of man and society remaining primary task of the Church in your country…There can be no doubt that a more consistent witness on the part of Americas Catholics to their deepest convictions would make a major contribution to the renewal of society as a whole.

Pay attention Lay faithful. As we have discussed many times on this blog before, the specific role of the laity is the renewal of the temporal order, as they live and witness to their faith in the family and in the world. To this end the Church has initiated many programs of adult study in parishes and this must grow and continue. Robert Barron’s Catholicism series is an excellent example of adult study and renewal.

Lay Catholics must also courageously bring their faith to bear in the political order and insist on being included in the political process at every level.

A magnificent articulation of the problem and the solution for the Church here. It’s pretty old fashioned actually, but also time tested and true. And what is that ancient and yet always new way?  In the face of rampant secularization, confusion and hostility:

Preach the Word; be ready, in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. (2 Tim 4:2-5)

Amen.

The Pope’s full remarks are here: Ad Limina

In these videos Fr. Barron (a great evangelizer) sets forth some of the basic errors of our days that make the proclamation of the Gospel difficult, but not impossible.

I know, you think I got the title backwards. But I didn’t.

In the very busy and distracted time in which we live we need to hear some old advice from God who said, “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps 46:10) or again, Silence, all mankind, in the presence of the LORD! for he stirs forth from his holy dwelling(Zech 2:13). So again I say, “Don’t just do something, stand there!” Or kneel there if you will.

Much is lost to us for our lack of silence, for the fact that we rush through life and never pause. Stop fidgeting and let God get your attention.

Rather than type on, just a few sayings and illustrations and I’m done:

1. Saying: Artist Paul Gauguin famously said, “I close my eyes in order to see.”
2. Another old saying, “Don’t think!…..Look!” (In other words, don’t rush to analyze everything, enjoy the actual view and data God has given, analyze later).
3. Observation: I live in Washington, right near the Capitol and often observe that many tourist never really “see” the Capitol with their own eyes, but only through their camera lens. So obsessed to get the picture they could see in any book, the actual moment of vision is lost or severely diminished.
4. Another observation: This happens at Church too. So obsessed with getting the picture of a child’s First Communion, or a friend’s wedding, many miss the actual moments and, even worse, forget to pray in these moments (total loss).
5. Desert Father Story on the poverty of words: Abba Moses lifted his hands in the air and said, “Every word about God is more of a distortion than a description!” Bewildered his students said, “But teacher, when you speak to us of God you use words!” At this Abba Moses lifted his hands again and laughed and said, “When I speak of God, listen less to the words and more to the silence between the words.”
6. Another Story on the poverty of words. The teacher entered and said to his disciples, “Those who know do not say and those who say, do not know.” The confused disciples inquired as to the meaning of this saying. The teacher said, “How many know the smell of a rose?” All nodded. “Put it into words,” he said. And all remained silent.
7. Movie clip: There is a scene in the movie The Color Purple where the two main characters, Shug and Celiee are talking. Celiee says, “I’m angry with God.” Shug says, “You’re angry with God?! I think God gets angry with us when we walk through a field and miss the color purple.”

OK, so there it is. In the communication age we often forget that words often accomplish a lot less that actual experience. We forget that much is learned in silence and stillness, in contemplation, adoration and simple appreciation.

As you go through life, don’t miss the color purple. In many parts of the country the Lilacs are still in bloom.