Saturday, November 2 (October 20), 2024
1Cor. 15:58-16:3;  Lk.5:17-26

“But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, ─ he said unto the sick of the palsy, ─ I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house” [Lk.5:24].  Forgiveness of sins is an inner, spiritual miracle; healing from the palsy is an external miracle, an act of God’s intervention into the natural physical world.  Material events are subordinate to spiritual ones, since only the latter have the ultimate meaning.  The influx of God’s power into both the spiritual and physical order of things is confirmed and justified by this Gospel account.

The Lord would never violate our freedom:  He would rather instruct, inspire, impress us.  The surest way of doing that is through external miracles.  Such miracles have the same origin as human beings ─ rational creatures endowed with freedom.  This connection is so strong and important that the doctrines which deny God’s super-natural intervention into the physical world also deny man’s free will: they realize that from free will by necessity follow miracles.  Conversely, those who confess that on top of the natural course of events there exists God’s influence upon the world, can boldly proclaim: “We feel that we are free”.

The sense of freedom is as stark and irresistible as the sense of being.  And for freedom to exist, it is imperative that immediate providential acts of God were possible.  Thus, the acceptance of miracles is as firmly established as that of the free will.

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