In the name of the Father, the Son and
the Holy Ghost.
Time and again we read of miracles in
the Gospel and in the Old Testament and indeed, we observe them in the
life of the Church through the centuries; miracles of healing, miracles
of the renewal of a human life by the power of God. And at times people
- we all - ask ourselves, What is a miracle? Is it a moment when God
overpowers His own creation, breaks its own laws, destroys something
which He has willed Himself? That would be an act of magic, an act of
overpowering whatever is unwilling to obey, of overpowering what is weak
in comparison to Him Who is strong.
A miracle is something completely
different
a miracle is
a moment when harmony destroyed by human sin is restored. It may be a
moment, it may be the beginning of a whole life: a harmony between God
and man, a harmony between the created world and its Creator. It is a
restoration of what should always be; not a miracle in the sense of
something unheard of, unnatural, perhaps contrary to the nature of
things, but rather a moment when God enters into His creation and is
received. And because He is received, He can act freely.
We have an example of such a miracle in
the story of the marriage at Cana of Galilee, when the Mother of God
turned to Christ and said to Him at this poor, peasant feast, "They have
no wine". Their hearts were still hungry for human happiness, for human
joy; and yet, the material support of such joy had gone. And Christ says
to Her, "What have I to do with Thee, why are you asking Me this
question?" And She does not answer Him directly; She turns to the
servants and says, "Whatever He may say to you - do it". She offers Him
a perfect act of faith; unreservedly She trusts His wisdom, His love and
His Divinity. And at that moment, because a door has been opened by the
faith of one person who has drawn into this faith all those who will do
what they are told, the Kingdom of God is established, a new dimension
of eternity, of infinite depth enters into the world and what is
otherwise impossible becomes reality.
And here we are confronted with several
things which are necessary for this harmony to be re-established. On the
one hand, - a need; a need which is real; it may not be great, but it
must be true; and joy and sorrow, illness and un-happiness are equally
in need of being absorbed into something greater than the earth,
something as vast and deep as the Divine Love and the Divine Harmony.
And then there is the Divine compassion
that we have heard of so many times, and the word is repeated here again
in today's Gospel - the feeding of the five thousand: Christ had
compassion, compassion which means that He looked at these people who
were in need, who could do nothing to alleviate it, and He felt a pain
in His Divine Heart, that these people, whose life should be fulfilment,
abundance, a glorious joy - that these people should be in obvious need.
This time it was hunger, another time it is illness, another time it is
sin, another time it is death - it may be anything. But God's love may
be either joy, exulting, glorious joy or crucified, sacrificial pain.
And when all this meets then a mysterious harmony is established between
the Divine sorrow and the human need, between human helplessness and the
power of God, the love of God that expresses itself in all ways, great
and small.
Let us therefore learn to be pure enough
in heart, pure enough in mind to be able to turn to God with our need
without hiding our face; or if we feel unworthy of coming up to Him, let
us kneel at His feet and say, Lord - I am unworthy! Unworthy to be in
Thy presence, unworthy of being loved, unworthy of Thy compassion, and
yet I believe in Thy love more than I am sure of my unworthiness, and I
come, because Thou art love and victory; because I have evidence in the
life and in the death of Thine Only Begotten Son of what I mean to Thee:
the life, the passion, the death, the descent into hell, the horror of
it, to save me.
Let us learn this creative helplessness
that consists in surrendering all hope of human victory for the sake of
the certainty that God can do what we cannot. Let us be helpless in the
sense of being transparent, and supple, and listening with all our
being, and presenting our need to God - our need of eternal life, but
also our needs that are human and frail: the need of support, the need
of consolation, the need for mercy. And the response of God will always
be the same: If you can believe, however little - everything is
possible. Amen.
