Do You Believe in Miracles?

To quote the sportscaster Al Michaels at the end of the U.S. hockey team’s victory during the 1980 Olympics: “Do you believe in miracles?”  (You have to shout this if you want to quote him accurately.) 

I do, but there are many believers who don’t.  And it’s not hard to see why.  To my mind–and I’m being serious here–I figure that if God can create the heavens and the earth, raise his son from the dead, and so on (to say nothing of what his son’s miracles during his earthly ministry) then something like healing someone from an incurable disease in the modern world is, by comparison, relatively easy.  Plus, I’ve read plenty of medical reports surrounding the many verified miracles at Lourdes.  And I’ve also seen and heard about what I would call “minor” miracles in people’s lives that remain inexplicable. 

But belief in miracles raises a very difficult question for those who believe in them (including me): Why is one person “cured” while another remains ill?  This is where those who do not believe in miracles have a very strong case: for if you admit of the possibility of miracles, then you have to grapple with the question of whether this means that God plays favorites.   And many of my friends simply cannot abide that image of God. 

However, it seems to me that miracles do occur these days, hard as it for many of us–including me–to comprehend them.  To that end, an article on “Modern Miracles” by Michael Paulson of The Boston Globe.

James Martin, SJ