4th Sunday after Epiphany 29.1.17 Miracles
It is God who works miracles but we speak of people working
them, in a secondary sense. How is it that some have more chance of working a
miracle than others?
We associate miracles with the saints, especially holy
people.
If Padre Pio is praying alongside of Pete the Pagan, one is
more likely to get the desired answer to his prayer than the other.
Even if they used the same words (eg the Our Father). What
is the difference? Simply that one loves God more than the other does. Or one
is closer to God than the other.
The closer to the fire the more heat generated. Holiness is
being close to the fire of divine love.
The divine comes through the human, like the sun through the
window. Therefore we need the window to be clean - to have as little as
possible impeding the flow of grace from God through us, to the desired
objective.
Our Lord Himself had perfect unity between His humanity and
divinity, and could summon any power He needed.
He could work any sort of miracle. And they would be clean
instantaneous miracles.
He did not stop half the storm one day and the other half
the next. He could do it all at once.
Our prayer is not usually so strong.
We cannot stand on the end of the jetty and command the
storm to stop. But we might be able to slow the storm down a little!
We might avert some damage, or do some good. It may not look
like much of a miracle, but we can grow in faith, and so can the miracles grow
in size.
We can do certain things to enable our faith to grow
stronger (and hence, more powerful).
1. One thing is to pray with others – so we pool our faith.
We must be stronger together than we are alone.
2. Believe we can achieve more than we have so far. We can
feel helpless and hopeless, but all things are possible to God. If what we are
asking for is pleasing to Him there is a strong chance it will happen.
3. Then pray as much as we can. Prayer is like bringing
water to the desert. Our prayer will be like rain, quenching the thirst. We
might bring rain, literally, but more importantly, we will bring about miracles
in the spiritual order – conversion of heart, a revival of faith and other virtues.
4. Many do not pray because they are discouraged. Thin
sowing makes thin reaping, says St Paul (2 Co 9,6). Thin praying makes very
thin results.
This is another problem for us. We have enough trouble
believing on our own account, but it is likely that many people around us
believe even less than we do! We have to work extra hard to make up the
deficiency.
5. If we pray enough we cannot miss. We will sometimes ask
for the wrong thing, and sometimes things which are not going to happen – but
we have to be right at least sometimes.
When we pray with faith and humility, the prayer will have
some impact somewhere, and on someone. The world will be a better place because
of that prayer. We may not see it, or know what it is, but we can trust.
It is like throwing food to a starving crowd. Someone will
catch the food and benefit from it.
And like the loaves of Our Lord’s miracle, the benefits will
be multiplied if we have strong faith.
6. We do not pray only to fix problems, though there are so
many to pray about.
We pray to praise and honour Almighty God. We know that such
prayer will benefit us by bringing His grace upon us, but if our faith is well
enough developed we will be honouring Him for His own sake, and not just trying
to get favours from Him.
All glory to God who has worked such wonders in our midst!
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