Q. Yo! Question.
A. Ehe…
Q. The Apostles even physically raised people from the dead in the Acts of the Apostles. Where did that power go to? You know...how come it doesn’t happen now? As in the Apostles are the successors of the Bishops, right?
A. Correct.
Q. So I should expect my Bishop, or any other Bishop in the Magisterium for that matter, to be able to heal “every disease and every illness”. You know. Bad stomach. To cancer. To leprosy. To alcoholism. I know my interpretation or lack of thereof seems naive and farfetched but it’s explicit in the gospel.
A. Very much like in physics where the force required to overcome inertia of rest is greater than the force required to keep an object in motion (without acceleration though), so too I would like to believe the "force" or grace or in this case miracles needed to start the church (overcome inertia of rest), is greater than that required to keep the church going.
For that reason, Christ's greatest miracle was at the end of His life: His own Resurrection.
So too the miracles of those He sent - the apostles or first bishops - would be greater than those required to keep the church going.
How did the 1st Christian converts know that what Christ taught Himself or through His apostles was true? Because of their miracles - Christ's and His apostles'.
How do we know that what Christ taught Himself or through His apostles was true? Because of the very same miracles. Those miracles were not just for the Christians of the first century but for us as well, just like the words Jesus and His apostles preached (recorded in Scripture and in Tradition) were not just for them but for us and all of mankind since then to the end of time. We do not require new miracles today to believe Jesus is the Son of God - which is what the miracles were intended for: our belief and consequent salvation.
Remember for Christ, the real or more important miracles were those of the soul (ref. Mk 2:1-11). For this reason, all priests to this day are granted a power to continue the miracles principally in the souls of men and only secondarily in their bodies. In fact I would go as far as saying that the miracles of the body only happen in as much as they are salutary to the soul: it is better to enter heaven without an eye or lame than to go to hell with your body integral. Some carpenter from kitambo made this daring assertion.
How do priests today carry out these miracles of the soul? Through the sacraments! And it makes sense since the power for miracles is not a human thing - it comes from God... as with the sacraments. So for example, through the Sacrament of Confession, priests raise not just bodies from the dead but souls! "And which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven' or to say 'Rise, take up your pallet and walk'?"
But for all of us, tbh, the miracles of the body are more spectacular. And I don't mean these crusade manenoz where the whole congregation collapses - except the cameraman - at the wave of the pastor's hand. And aside from some of the spectacular stories of miracles by priests and even nuns and lay people there are those that are documented for example in the causes of beatification and canonisation of the saints, the one for Blessed Alvaro for example was effectively a child being raised from the dead through the prayer of the mother, not even a descendant of the bishops. And then there are those that Christ continues to work on His own initiative: the on-going Eucharistic miracles.
So Christ's miraculous power is still very much active in His Mystical body. But these are always for the sake of souls and their salvation - not to solve an inconvenience. (That inconvenience, offered in union with Christ, could even be more salutary than a miracle that resolves the inconvenience!)
Over and out.
Q. Except the cameraman!
A. Kali sana!
But makes 100% sense by the way. Wazi!
Happy Sunday!
7th July 2019