GASP!!!] Look, Stephen!” Erwin excitedly pointed at the sky. “A shooting star!”
Stephen merely looked aimlessly up the sky and gave it a very bored stare. “I missed it…guess it was too fast.”
On another occasion, Erwin saw a beautiful rainbow spreading its colors from one end of the horizon to the other. “Have you ever seen one so big?”
Stephen just shrugged his shoulders and said, “…but they’re always the same old colors.”
Later, Erwin traced an outline of the huge setting sun, “Wow, this is so awesome! Isn’t this a marvelous color display?”
Stephen simply yawned and said, “I guess so, but it’s the same sun isn’t it?”
Erwin concluded that his friend wasn’t really amazed at all the things he appreciated so he asked, “Steph, why aren’t you so interested with shooting stars, rainbows and many other incredible stuff of nature?”
“It’s not that I’m not interested,” Steph answered.
“Then what?”
“You want to know why I seem bored about them?”
“Yeah, why?” Erwin replied.
“Come, I’ll show you,” they stepped out of Erwin’s house and walked towards the park. A bright day greeted them as they entered the park.
“How many times do you want to see the sun set today?” Stephen asked.
“How many?” Erwin was confused. “What do you mean? There’s only one sunset a day, Steph.”
“I’m simply asking how many you want to see,” Stephen asked in a more serious tone.
“I guess it’s enough to see only one.”
“Alright! One sunset coming down…,” Stephen stretched out his right hand and motioned as though grabbing the sun. He gestured like he was pulling it downwards into the horizon.
“OMG!” Erwin could not believe what he saw. The sun was following Stephen’s hand downward until it fully disappeared into the horizon.
The stars started to shine above them.
“How…!!!!?”
“Now, how many stars do you want to fall?” Stephen asked Erwin.
“But…,” Erwin couldn’t contain his amazement.
“…how many, Erwin?”
“Five…?”
“Five they shall be…,” Stephen started pointing as though he were tapping on the stars.
“One… two… three… four… and five!” The very stars he pointed at quivered for a second, glowed a little brighter and one by one started falling from the sky.
Even before Erwin could react, a beautiful rainbow stretched itself upon the night sky.
“Now, do you understand?” Stephen smiled at his friend.
* * *
Our Lord’s disciples, like Erwin, would have been ‘awe-dified’ when Jesus performed His wonderful and awesome miracles. For example, the multiplication of the loaves and fish, calming the winds and waves, walking on water and raising dead people back to life.
However, unlike our fantastic story, Jesus performed miracles to announce the arrival of God’s Kingdom and to help his disciples grow in their faith that He was the Christ. The Catechism teaches, “…miracles strengthen faith in the One who does his Father’s works; they bear witness that he is the Son of God. (…) they are not intended to satisfy people’s curiosity or desire for magic. Despite His evident miracles some people reject Jesus; He is even accused of acting by the power of demons. (no. 548.)”
Moreover, Jesus’ miracles were not meant only to rid this world of difficulties and sufferings. They were meant “to free men from the gravest slavery, sin, which thwarts them in their vocation as God’s sons and causes all forms of human bondage. (Ibid. no. 549)” This is the miracle of conversion, and was especially worked by Jesus when He –being God, the only One who could forgive sins– forgave the sins of many who came to Him for help.
Today, people are still struck by the ‘extraordinary’ and naturally seek signs and wonders. But many are like our ‘magician boy’ in the story above: they are either ‘bored’ with miracles or only seek them for some material gain. We can call those who are ‘bored’ with miracles atheists and the latter, superstitious people.
Atheists take a rationally extreme position that whatever cannot be verified and proven by science and reason is not fit to be believed and taught (i.e. religious beliefs and practices) Superstition, on the other hand, is a sentimental stance degrading religious beliefs and practices into magical and occult rituals in order to acquire some material benefit and power. Whatever the case may be, they both cancel out God’s role in mans’ life and make man the sole center of existence.
It is important to remove any strain of these tendencies in our soul. We can do so by humbly making many acts of faith during the day that will allow our souls to breath in more grace and allow us to experience daily the miracle of our personal conversion. We will then be capable of witnessing other miracles in the most ordinary things of life.
“The Year of Faith, from this perspective, is a summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the one Saviour of the world. (…) this new life shapes the whole of human existence according to the radical new reality of the resurrection. To the extent that he freely cooperates, man’s thoughts and affections, mentality and conduct are slowly purified and transformed, on a journey that is never completely finished in this life. (Porta fidei, no. 6)”
We become, so to speak, God’s little but constant miracles here on earth. We share with our neighbors, the miracle of our prayer, of our hidden sacrifice and uncomplaining work, the brilliant but humble light of our love and service, etc. Above all, we become oases of love with the constant miracle of our smile, gratitude, forgiveness and an unceasing thirst to bring many other souls to the quenching waters of our faith.