Memorial of Saints Cyril, Monk, and Methodius, Bishop
Jesus is exasperated today. He'd just miraculously fed 4,000 people and still they ask him for a sign. Can you hear our Lord sighing? Rolling his eyes?
All of us long for a sign now and then. Woody Allen said that he'd asked God for “a clear sign like making a substantial deposit in my name in a Swiss bank account.” Catholics have recognized even more extravagant miracles then that, as our history shows.
In Naples, Italy a vial of the dried blood of martyr Saint Januarius (300s CE) liquefies three times a year. It unexpectedly liquefied for popes Francis in 2015 and Pius IX in 1848.
If that doesn't make your blood boil, I don't know what will.
Other saints have demonstrated the improbable, too. Martin De Porres could bi-locate, doubling his good works. Joseph of Cupertino levitated, sometimes at the most inopportune times. But my personal favorite is Christina the Astonishing. She'd rise to the rafters at Mass, descending only at the dismissal because she “disdained the foul stench of sinful human flesh.” Well, we've all been there, haven't we? (The largest parish in my home Diocese of Youngstown is named for her, which may be a miracle in itself.)
If nothing else, we Catholics are a colorful and earthy bunch.
Our desire for the mystical can approach the bizarre even in our time. In 1996 a two story high rainbow colored “image” of the Blessed Virgin appeared on the side of the Seminole Savings and Loan building in Clearwater, Florida, attracting huge crowds. That year Our Lady supposedly was manifesting herself at our former seminary in Norwood. Quatman Cafe across the street changed their sign to “Eat, drink, and see Mary.”
Although very rare, there are miracles and God does supplant the laws of nature in our favor. In order to be canonized any candidate must have performed two miracles recognized as such by both the scientific and medical communities.
But are we missing the transcendent, the wondrous already around us? Catholics are sacramental people. Sacramental awareness is at the heart of Catholic life---recognizing the holy in the everyday, in the usual. Indeed, the Almighty must like the common and the ordinary---creating so much of it and all.
Imagine an October Glory maple tree, the first snow of winter, the face of a newborn. Seeing the wonders around us requires a sacramental approach to life. Consider our very lives and what happens in them: “Think of all thousands of billions of steps and missteps and chances and coincidences that have brought me here. Brought you here to where we are”(L. Oliver). Truly God is in the mix.
Feeding 4,000 is extravagant, unless you count the earlier feeding of the 5,000. And it is good to be cautious and not rush to conclusions regarding miracles. Perhaps we may remind ourselves from time to time, in the words of St. Therese of Lisieux, that “All is gift. All is grace.” Then our sacramental eyes can clearly focus with 20-20 vision and see what is there--- God in all things.
Timothy J. Cronin