Articles
Should we believe in Miracles?
Opinion | Articles | Chhotebhai | 11-Apr-2025
My wife and I were back from Sunday Mass. I was at my writing table while she was on the phone. I heard her say something about speaking in tongues, so I asked her whom she was talking to, as she is not the “charismatic” type.
It was on old friend who 35 years ago worked with her at “The Spastics Centre” here in Kanpur. Her husband was a senior army officer. This Hindu lady’s grandson (15), now in the USA, had become a Christian and was now conversant with the Bible. When his mother fell sick recently he prayed in tongues and she was healed. Was this a miracle? That would depend on what we understand by miracles.
Another young boy (10) is the grandson of another of my wife’s colleagues. He too was attracted to Jesus. How? He is a fan of footballer Lionel Messi who wears a cross, so this boy decided to do likewise. He too is Hindu (in fact from a family of hardcore RSS supporters). But he now says he is Christian, and insists that his grandmother take him to church on Sundays. Recently, when his grandfather fell ill, he came to our parish church to pray. Is this also a miracle?
Before our marriage my wife was working for the people of Arunachal, initially from a mission station at Harmutty, Assam, bordering on the State. This was at the behest of Rev Kulandaiswamy, a zealous missionary. She recalls how one day a strapping Nishi tribal with his hornbill headgear, bare bodied, except for his dhab (all purpose hunting knife) strung across his chest, strode into the mission station.
He marched straight to the makeshift bamboo structure that served as a church and stared at the crucifix. In his halting Nishi native tongue he said that this was the person whom he had seen in a dream and had come to pay him obeisance. Shades of the Magi! Was this too a miracle?
The tribals of Arunachal were soon endeared to my wife. One of them, who had become an MLA, arranged for her as a teacher in a government school. Back then, 45 years ago, non-Arunachalis, especially Christians, were banned from entering the State. My wife recalls several instances of the power of God working among those primitive tribal people. Remember that she was more of a sceptic than a charismatic.
She had once invited me and my team to share the Word with these people at Harmutty. They were tribals coming straight out of dense forests and rugged hills. They could not even communicate with each other because of different dialects. Assamese was their link language. Kulandai had made some of them lay catechists. On their way back they took with then consecrated hosts wrapped in newspaper. Such was their belief in its healing power. Were these also miracles?
My own first encounter with God’s miraculous power was when I was doing my intermediate in 1966. My father was a devotee of St Jude, the patron of hopeless cases. At the inauguration of the new shrine at Jhansi he regained his ability to walk and did so till his death four years later. Call this a miracle?
Years later I was in Jyotiniketan Ashram, Bareilly, with the saintly Fr Deenabandhu Ofm Cap, albeit as a layman. I embarked on a 2-month, 2000 kms gospel journey in the Franciscan spirit; just one more set of clothes, my New Testament, prayer book, crucifix and cymbals (majeera); but without money. I crossed the mighty Ganga (on a boat, not walking) and another crocodile infested river. I walked in the blazing summer heat and often slept under wayside trees. Once, while walking through a forest it was raining all around me but I myself was bone dry. When hungry I found hot puris on the road. Call this foolhardy journey a miracle?
At the fag end of this journey I reached Allahabad where Fr Dhiranand Bhat asked me to share my experiences with the scholars at St Joseph’s Seminary. I spoke of the power of the Word of God. One young man at the back of the hall kept asking me what I meant by that? Fr Bhat subsequently told me that he was the Professor of Sacred Scripture who had just done his doctorate in Rome! Was this also a miracle, that a man who questioned the power of the Word should become a professor of Sacred Scripture?
I could share many more instances of God’s power and protection in my life. But from the subjective let me move to the objective. What exactly is a miracle? I found the answer in two scholarly tomes – the Dictionary of the Bible by John McKenzie SJ and the New Jerome Biblical Commentary, a compendium by many biblical scholars. The Dictionary says that “Modern theology defines miracles as a phenomenon in nature that transcends the capacity of natural causes to such a degree that it must be attributed to the direct intervention of God”. Notice that it says that a miracle is not contrary to nature, but transcends it.
It continues that “scientists are now much more hesitant in affirming the constancy of action and the fixity of natural principles”. Is science then leaning towards the Uncertainty Principle that Stephen Hawking used to claim that God did not exist? Is science also saying that the more it knows, the more it admits that it doesn’t have all the answers?
In the Old Testament “Nature was not conceived as a unified system … It is personalized and there is no idea of natural causes acting according to constant laws and fixed principles. The course of nature exhibits the unpredictability which we attribute to personal beings”. In Hebrew there is no word for nature, hence it also does not have a word that “corresponds to miracle”.
In like manner the New Testament also “shows little or no conception of nature as a systematic unity governed by fixed principles and laws of causality” (cause and effect). In Greek various words are used to describe Jesus’ actions – dynameis, that means power, semeion that means a sign, and teras that means a portent. Hence Jesus’ actions may not necessarily be “miracles”, but “rather a manifest evidence of the intervention of God”.
The most common word used is dynameis (power). Jesus is the power of God (cf 1 Cor 1:24). It flows out from him (cf Mk 5:30). He passes this power on to his apostles (cf Lk 9:1). The charismata (cf 1 Cor 12:10) are also a sign of God’s presence among his people.
Jesus’ miracles are classified as nature miracles and healing miracles. They are also used to “remove the consequences of sin, human infirmity and suffering”. His acts were “perfect examples of unmixed benevolence which works entirely outward and draws nothing to itself”. This explains why Jesus assiduously avoided the image of a miracle worker, something that many evangelists today do not seem to understand.
The Biblical Commentary also has some useful insights. “It is in the context of giving eschatological joy, of liberating from evil, and of making Israel whole again that Jesus’ miracles must be understood”. And again, “Jesus’ miracles were not simply kind deeds done to aid individuals; they were concrete ways of proclaiming and effecting God’s triumph over the powers of evil in the final hour”. So Jesus’ miracles were not isolated acts of mercy, but part of an overall masterplan of salvation.
This is why I differ from today’s charismatics or Pentecostals, especially those who organize healing campaigns. Such acts cannot be held in isolation. They must be part of a deeper salvific mission that necessitates sacrifice, suffering and misunderstanding. One cannot be a school principal in the morning and a wonder healer in the evening.
I have many charismatic and Pentecostal friends. This is not meant as a criticism, but as a course correction. In my earlier days of youth ministry and Gospel journeys I may not have experienced “miracles” per se. But I did repeatedly experience the power, presence and protection of the Word of God. Let us then imbue this Word in our lives rather than giving undue importance to “miracles” or transcendental phenomena. If they have to happen, they will.
Have I answered the initial question about believing in miracles? Maybe. Unfortunately, many of us want clear cut answers. That’s not how it works. As the great Jesuit Superior General Pedro Aruppe said “In the spiritual life there is no such thing as mathematical assurance”.
To that I would add, “If we had all the answers, we would be omniscient, and there would be no need of God”! Thankfully we don’t have all the answers.
(The is the Convenor of the Indian Catholic Forum. He believes in the power of God’s Word)
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