We need faith for miracles to happen

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

GIVEN the precarious and wounded condition of our human life, plus the fact that we are meant to live a supernatural life, one that is simply beyond our human powers to attain without the help of God’s grace, we have to understand that many times we need to ask for miracles, those extraordinary interventions we ask of God for the simple reason that we would just find ourselves in some situations to be helpless and hopeless.

In fact, in the world today, we can detect an increasing number of predicaments that often reduce us to helplessness. This can be brought about by the new technologies that, while giving us a lot of advantages, can also cause great harm. Yes, these new technologies are a double-edged sword.

This truth about our need for faith for miracles to happen was illustrated many times in the gospel where all sorts of people approached Christ asking for some miracles. In the gospel of St. John (4,43-54) for example, we are given that episode of a royal official who begged Christ to heal his ill son. And the main factor that made that miracle take place was the faith that officials had.

“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe,” Christ said. But the royal official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.” And since that official believed, his son was cured.

We have to have a strong faith for miracles to happen. If we have this kind of faith, we know that we always need to go to Christ, like those many helpless characters in the gospel who approached him for a cure. In other words, we cannot anymore rely on our human natural and human powers alone to handle our extraordinary predicaments. We have to beg for miracles!

Miracles are certainly part of what God has made available for our problems. When St. Paul said: “God will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it,” (1 Cor 10,13) he must have included this extraordinary recourse to miracles as one of God’s ways for us to endure any temptation or predicament.

And so let us go to Christ like the blind man Bartimaeus (Mk 10,46-52), the woman with the flow of blood (Mk 5,25), the 10 lepers (Lk 17,11-19), the man born blind (Jn 9,1-12), the man possessed by a legion of devils (Mk 5,1-10), and many others. Let’s go to him without delay, without hesitation.

We can also help others go to Christ if they themselves cannot do it, like what the father of a possessed boy did (Mk 9,17-24), those who brought a paralytic to Christ (Mk 2,4), the centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servant (Lk 7,1-10), etc. We can do a lot of good to others if we do this.

What is important is that we approach Christ with deep faith. In those miraculous cures Christ did, he always referred to the great faith of those who asked for those miracles.

Let us humble ourselves so that that faith can grow and show itself in deeds, like intense prayers and sacrifice. Remember what Christ told his disciples why they could not cure an epileptic boy. It was because of their little faith. (cfr. Mt 17,20)

* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

Miracles more for our salvation than mere cure

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

          THAT beautiful gospel episode about a man with palsy who was

brought to Christ by his friends for a cure in a very dramatic way

(cfr. Lk 5,17-26) teaches us the lessons that a strong faith is needed

for miracles to happen, that miracles are meant more to forgive our

sins and for our salvation rather than just curing an ailment, and

that we have to be wary of our tendency to be fault-finders due to our

unbelief.

          Indeed, miracles require a strong faith since they are an

extraordinary divine and supernatural intervention. They are like

asking God to go beyond but not against our natural capabilities that

will always be hounded by our limitations, weaknesses and the

consequences of our sins.

          God never abandons us and is always solicitous of our needs.

The problem is simply ours because we tend to ignore him and, worse,

to be weak in our faith or even not to have faith. We need to do

something to address this predicament of ours. Let’s study the

doctrine of faith, start to live it by making many acts of faith

throughout the day, etc.

          Let’s remember that if we have faith, Christ assured us that

nothing would be impossible. Let’s relish his words: “If you have

faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain,

Remove from there, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be

impossible to you.” (Mt 17,20)

          Also, we have to realize more deeply that miracles are meant

more for the forgiveness of our sins, for our salvation, rather than

just giving us some cure or remedy to an ailment of ours.

          In fact, we can say that any miraculous cure is meant for

the purpose of our salvation. It’s not just to give us some earthly

relief, though there is no doubt that such relief would already

constitute a tremendous favor. We should never miss this aspect of a

miracle that can come to us, otherwise that miracle would go to waste

or would spoil us.

          In this particular gospel episode of the man with the palsy,

Christ did not immediately cure him of his ailment. Rather he forgave

the man’s sins which led to some of the unbelieving Jews to question

him. Christ used that occasion to clarify that he has the power to

forgive sins, precisely because he is God who became man to save us.

The miraculous cure served as some kind of proof to his divinity.

          We also have to be wary of our tendency to be unbelieving,

especially because we have to contend with spiritual and supernatural

realities that may challenge our understanding. Here, we simply have

to be humble to be able to receive what is told to us by faith. We

have to realize that our life, being a life with God and therefore is

supernatural, needs to be lived by faith more than just by our reason

alone.

          We have to constantly struggle against our tendency to be

dependent only on our reason and our feelings. These human faculties

of ours can only capture a part of the reality that governs us. It is

the faith that gives us the global picture of things, since it relates

us to God, our Father and Creator, and tells us everything we need to

know and do to be able to be with God, as our life ought to be.

* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enteprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com