Time and again we read of miracles in the Gospel and in the Old Testament and indeed, we observe them in the life of the Church through the centuries; miracles of healing, miracles of the renewal of a human life by the power of God. And at times people ask – we all ask ourselves – What is a miracle?
Is it a moment when God overpowers His own creation, breaks its own laws, destroys something which He has willed Himself? That would be an act of magic, an act of overpowering whatever is unwilling to obey, of overpowering what is weak in comparison to Him Who is strong.
A miracle is something completely different, a miracle is a moment when harmony destroyed by human sin is restored. It may be a moment, it may be the beginning of a whole life: a harmony between God
and man, a harmony between the created world and its Creator. It is a restoration of what should always be; not a miracle in the sense of something unheard of, unnatural, perhaps contrary to the nature of things, but rather a moment when God enters into His creation and is received. And because He is received, He can act freely.
(Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh: On Miracles, 17 August 1986)
I’ve always thought that a miracle is something that could/would only happen, in any given situation, when a supernatural God intervenes and makes a wrong thing right. Certainly that includes whenever ‘God is received’ but it also includes healings and rescues from evil spirits.
Magic happens when a ‘magician’ uses sleight of hand (the hand is quicker than the eye) to fool observers into thinking something supernatural happens when it actually doesn’t.
When God the creator intervenes and helps a human who would otherwise be helpless it does not automatically follow that God is ‘breaking’ his own laws. God, as the highest authority everywhere/anywhere/anytime can do whatever he pleases if it so pleases him.
The way I see it, anyway …
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