In response to Cal’s comment on the blog below, I couldn’t agree more – and disagree more. I will explain by means of Medjugorje, a current unofficial miracle site of the Virgin Mary in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Back in February or late January of this year, I came across something that mentioned Medjugorje that peaked my interest. I had read a book about it almost 20 years earlier, had been fascinated, and then had forgotten it. What were the odds that I would ever fly to the back woods of the Balkans? This time, however, we had gotten to know a woman who had gone there who had absolutely loved it. I had not seen her in nearly a year, but after I brought it up with my wife, we discussed asking her exactly how she had gone about making that trip. A few days later, circumstances had me attend mass by myself at a time that I normally did not go. Shortly after I sat down in the pew, this woman and her family settled in on the opposite end. After mass, I remembered the Medjogorje thing and asked her about it, to which she said she would give the information to my wife at some time. It happened that she got in touch with us within a day or so, actually dropping the material off in our mailbox. When we saw what she had given us, we were hooked. She had gone with a writer and filmmaker, Sean Bloomfield, who had a personal relationship with Mirjana, one of the visionaries who had seen and spoken to the Virgin since the early 1980’s. Vicki looked him up and saw that he was bringing a group to Medjugorje that March, and that there were only two days left to sign in. This didn’t give us much time to hem and haw, and in an odd sort of haze, by the next day we found ourselves signed up with money sent to fly to the far south east of Europe.
From that moment on, even before the flight, I became a real Catholic with a dedication to Mary. Something had just clicked. Medjugorje itself was an international sea of faith that was as overwhelming as a tsunami, and as welcome as a soft summer breeze. Even so, on the night before we flew back, I had a locution – a man’s voice - in a special dream that said, “How hard for you to believe while you are here. How much harder it will be when you are gone.”
True. I have always been and will always be, at least somewhat, a doubting Thomas. Even though I have gotten the faith, it still slips from me on a regular basis. I do not want to be anybody’s fool, and certainly not one of those guys with a Bible in his hand preaching repentance on the college green. And yet – how can I doubt it? I have felt the Holy Spirit and it is nothing at all like I had imagined. It is total mystery and total creativity. This is probably why belief in it is so hard: it is like nothing else, and when it leaves one’s consciousness, it is like the passing wind. It cannot be anchored. But I have felt it, and even my full introduction to it through Medjugorje is surrounded by seemingly miraculous circumstances. Yet still I doubt.
Cal is right, though. In the Gospels, we have the scene after the crucifixion of Jesus, when all the disciples except Thomas are gathered in a house hiding from the authorities. They are terrified and in shock. The man who they thought was the Messiah – the one who would lead Israel to head all nations - has been killed by the Romans like a common criminal. Then he appears in resurrected form and speaks to them before vanishing. A little later, Thomas returns and is told the unbelievable news, and he replies that he will not believe it – that he will be nobody’s fool – until he puts his hands in Jesus’s wounds. Jesus then comes back and asks a stunned Thomas to place his hands in his wounds. Thomas of course believes, but Jesus reminds us all that ‘he believes in me because he has seen. Blessed are those who believe without seeing.’
Miracles: Peter was the first to realize that Jesus was The One and Thomas the last, needing a miracle to believe even though he had seen dozens if not hundreds of miracles already from the incarnate Jesus. Blessed is he who does not need miracles to believe, but much of the world does, again and again and again. It is not enough to read of the miracles of Jesus from men who died painful deaths for their belief, something few would ever do for a lie. Still, we need more and more. The cardiologist mentioned in the former blog listed several verifiable miracles in his book, but I bet few skeptics were convinced. Yes, we can understand that those not introduced to certain religions might not be convinced that it was the Holy Spirit of the Trinity that did the healing, but to deny that something beyond our understanding – something spiritual – was and is going on with these miracles is a miracle of willed ignorance itself. And yet many if not most of the leaders of this brave new world of technological miracles try to convince us that nothing is happening except perhaps a little “mind over matter” wizardry, whatever that could be.
That is why I compared such denial to climate change denial – because many of the very people who criticize those who do not accept the standard model for a disastrous future deny the miracles that are all about them. Again, these do not logically lead to only a belief in Jesus, but they do lead to a belief in the spiritual. That the Spirit would bring me to Christianity is obvious on the face of it: that is my background, and that is how it appeared to me. It most certainly does appear to others through a different lens, but that does not change the hard data that we find again and again that points us towards the reality of the spiritual realm. Like those who believe in the worst- case scenario of climate change, such evidence should change our world. Really, it should affect our lives even more than the climate change disaster scenario, as the fact of the existence of the Holy Spirit is already before us, rather than still only a model for a future possible reality. But for most, as with Thomas, the reality of Spirit evidenced by others is simply not enough to change them.
That is why we need miracles right in front of us, as often as possible. They are a big deal, as Jesus himself understood. It is better to believe without them, but we know that lies are perpetuated again and again by people with self-interests – maybe even including some climate-change scenarios. We of the current era are skeptical; we do not wish to be made fools, even as our skepticism might make us even greater fools.
So, Cal, you are right – we should not need miracles; but you are wrong, too – in this existence, we do. And we have them, and they point to one thing – that Spirit exists. In that, our lives should be irrevocably changed. For me, I believe, or at least hope, that such miracles have changed my life forever. I should have believed without “seeing,” I know, but we of the world are, as Luke of the Gospels put it, a stiff - necked race. It is us stiff-necked ones who need the miracles, the greatest being the very grace of faith that allows those others who are more blessed to see without putting their hands in the wounds.
In response to Cal’s comment on the blog below, I couldn’t agree more – and disagree more. I will explain by means of Medjugorje, a current unofficial miracle site of the Virgin Mary in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Back in February or late January of this year, I came across something that mentioned Medjugorje that peaked my interest. I had read a book about it almost 20 years earlier, had been fascinated, and then had forgotten it. What were the odds that I would ever fly to the back woods of the Balkans? This time, however, we had gotten to know a woman who had gone there who had absolutely loved it. I had not seen her in nearly a year, but after I brought it up with my wife, we discussed asking her exactly how she had gone about making that trip. A few days later, circumstances had me attend mass by myself at a time that I normally did not go. Shortly after I sat down in the pew, this woman and her family settled in on the opposite end. After mass, I remembered the Medjogorje thing and asked her about it, to which she said she would give the information to my wife at some time. It happened that she got in touch with us within a day or so, actually dropping the material off in our mailbox. When we saw what she had given us, we were hooked. She had gone with a writer and filmmaker, Sean Bloomfield, who had a personal relationship with Mirjana, one of the visionaries who had seen and spoken to the Virgin since the early 1980’s. Vicki looked him up and saw that he was bringing a group to Medjugorje that March, and that there were only two days left to sign in. This didn’t give us much time to hem and haw, and in an odd sort of haze, by the next day we found ourselves signed up with money sent to fly to the far south east of Europe.
From that moment on, even before the flight, I became a real Catholic with a dedication to Mary. Something had just clicked. Medjugorje itself was an international sea of faith that was as overwhelming as a tsunami, and as welcome as a soft summer breeze. Even so, on the night before we flew back, I had a locution – a man’s voice - in a special dream that said, “How hard for you to believe while you are here. How much harder it will be when you are gone.”
True. I have always been and will always be, at least somewhat, a doubting Thomas. Even though I have gotten the faith, it still slips from me on a regular basis. I do not want to be anybody’s fool, and certainly not one of those guys with a Bible in his hand preaching repentance on the college green. And yet – how can I doubt it? I have felt the Holy Spirit and it is nothing at all like I had imagined. It is total mystery and total creativity. This is probably why belief in it is so hard: it is like nothing else, and when it leaves one’s consciousness, it is like the passing wind. It cannot be anchored. But I have felt it, and even my full introduction to it through Medjugorje is surrounded by seemingly miraculous circumstances. Yet still I doubt.
Cal is right, though. In the Gospels, we have the scene after the crucifixion of Jesus, when all the disciples except Thomas are gathered in a house hiding from the authorities. They are terrified and in shock. The man who they thought was the Messiah – the one who would lead Israel to head all nations - has been killed by the Romans like a common criminal. Then he appears in resurrected form and speaks to them before vanishing. A little later, Thomas returns and is told the unbelievable news, and he replies that he will not believe it – that he will be nobody’s fool – until he puts his hands in Jesus’s wounds. Jesus then comes back and asks a stunned Thomas to place his hands in his wounds. Thomas of course believes, but Jesus reminds us all that ‘he believes in me because he has seen. Blessed are those who believe without seeing.’
Miracles: Peter was the first to realize that Jesus was The One and Thomas the last, needing a miracle to believe even though he had seen dozens if not hundreds of miracles already from the incarnate Jesus. Blessed is he who does not need miracles to believe, but much of the world does, again and again and again. It is not enough to read of the miracles of Jesus from men who died painful deaths for their belief, something few would ever do for a lie. Still, we need more and more. The cardiologist mentioned in the former blog listed several verifiable miracles in his book, but I bet few skeptics were convinced. Yes, we can understand that those not introduced to certain religions might not be convinced that it was the Holy Spirit of the Trinity that did the healing, but to deny that something beyond our understanding – something spiritual – was and is going on with these miracles is a miracle of willed ignorance itself. And yet many if not most of the leaders of this brave new world of technological miracles try to convince us that nothing is happening except perhaps a little “mind over matter” wizardry, whatever that could be.
That is why I compared such denial to climate change denial – because many of the very people who criticize those who do not accept the standard model for a disastrous future deny the miracles that are all about them. Again, these do not logically lead to only a belief in Jesus, but they do lead to a belief in the spiritual. That the Spirit would bring me to Christianity is obvious on the face of it: that is my background, and that is how it appeared to me. It most certainly does appear to others through a different lens, but that does not change the hard data that we find again and again that points us towards the reality of the spiritual realm. Like those who believe in the worst- case scenario of climate change, such evidence should change our world. Really, it should affect our lives even more than the climate change disaster scenario, as the fact of the existence of the Holy Spirit is already before us, rather than still only a model for a future possible reality. But for most, as with Thomas, the reality of Spirit evidenced by others is simply not enough to change them.
That is why we need miracles right in front of us, as often as possible. They are a big deal, as Jesus himself understood. It is better to believe without them, but we know that lies are perpetuated again and again by people with self-interests – maybe even including some climate-change scenarios. We of the current era are skeptical; we do not wish to be made fools, even as our skepticism might make us even greater fools.
So, Cal, you are right – we should not need miracles; but you are wrong, too – in this existence, we do. And we have them, and they point to one thing – that Spirit exists. In that, our lives should be irrevocably changed. For me, I believe, or at least hope, that such miracles have changed my life forever. I should have believed without “seeing,” I know, but we of the world are, as Luke of the Gospels put it, a stiff - necked race. It is us stiff-necked ones who need the miracles, the greatest being the very grace of faith that allows those others who are more blessed to see without putting their hands in the wounds.
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