Miracles and their truth

DO WE BELIEVE in miracles?
The story of the parish priest who recovered from his stroke after the mummified hand of St John Kemble was laid upon his forehead made headlines last week. In Italy, the cult surrounding the statue of Our Lady in Civitavecchia continues to draw thousands of pilgrims to the small town outside Rome. When Time magazine carried out a poll earlier this year, 69 per cent of Americans said they believed in miracles.
Why? Why, in our supposedly secular age, amidst the siren call of solip sism and the clamouring cries of consumerism, do we suspend disbelief and yearn for miracles?
One reason, surely, must be that miracles point to the existence of another world and a Higher Being.
They hint, even to the most unbelieving, at eternity: they thus extend our existence from the circumscribed preoccupations of everyday life to an awesome world without end.
Miracles, too, hint at the power of redemption through faith. They hold
out a promise whether it be a cure from an ailment in this world or of
reward in the next.
In their paradoxical nature, as the epitome of the inexplicable, they point to the mystery of faith: they challenge our reality and hint at a far greater one.
Finally, miracles have been interpreted as a sign that He inhabits our world and can be construed as His blessing. Little wonder, then, that relics, shrines and miracle-workers have occupied a place at the heart of our Church since time immemorial indeed, Our Lord performed miracles throughout his 33 years on this earth.
If, as Pascal wrote, faith is the will to believe when not to would be just as easy, miracles can help us find that will.
But Jesus Christ warned his followers that we must not use miracles,to prove His existence. True faith needs no evidence of His presence. The believer finds Him in the everyday, in the commonplace, and in the most banal of exchanges. Miracles can strengthen our faith, but not replace it; they can regenerate our hope, but not provide its source.