The Saint Paul globe., 1898-11-07


mon at the late mass at the Cathedral
yesterday. He spoke as follows:
In the Gospel read to you there are mar
rated two miracles wrought by our blessed
Savior, few out of the many miracles that
marked the passage of Jesus over the earth.
WHAT is MIRACLE?
A miracle is a sensible, visible act which
transcends created power, and consequently
denotes divine agent. A miracle is some
thing which no man through his own power
or through the powers of nature can do. It
is something which demands supernatural and
divine agency. 1t must, when the miracle is
taken as an evidence of religion, be a visible
tangible fact, falling under our senses in
such a manner that such fact can be proved
that it can be established according to the
rules of moral evidence. Christians believe
that Almighty God constantly, as it were, in
terferes in the supernatural life of the souls;
and so far as His action in those cases is a
supernatural direct intervention, We might
say it is miraculous, but when the miracle
strictly taken is invoked as an evidence of
divine mission it must be tangible, visible
material.
prejudice, of course arises In this unbe-
viewing world against mirac-es. 1t is realized
that by the elimination Of miracles from his
tory the foundation is taken from the his
tian religion. and every possible objection
is made and repeated against miracles. 1t
is said that miracle is impozsi-
exists beyond this word, because, forsoCth,
this supernatural power, having once estab-
lished order in the universe, would not and
could not consistently change it. Brethren,
given the great Gcd, at whose word this uni
verse was established, we believe and know
that He remains the Master, and that it be-
longs to Him to say whether He shall inter
fere and when He shall so interfere. He
established laws in the universe; but He
DID NOT ABDICATE
His authority because He established laws
because He pat created beings in the uni
verse. Eis Intervention i'll created laws will
not be arbitrary or without reSson, for the
Supreme Wisdom never acts wi .hout reason;
but he is to be the judge of reasons and of
causes, and we leave it to Himself the Gre
stor and Master, to say whether and when
He shall interfere with His own laws. Nor
is the action of God in a supernatural manner
destruction of the laws.
what are the laws of nature? They are
the decision of the Creator that forces will
by Himself. Now, If another force comes
In contact with those forces, 1t suspends for
the time being the action of those forces
IN IN certain way free agent interferes with
action; so God brings in His WILL which Is
always omnipotent, ever eflcacious and ere
ated energies yield before the coming of that
supernatural power. We cannot for mo-
ment imagine that God would create a few
worlds, which, however numerous they may
be, are, after all, but few scintillations of
omnipotence, and then remain idle, away
from His creation, no longer having power
over 1t. The miracle inaSmuch as 1t is an
AHteINeHlIOH IrOIn lne creator or things Gre
ated, is to Him the most natural manifesto
ton OF power that can well be imagined But,
1t Is added, how can we know that any
given fact is a miracle? Have we not the
understanding of causes existing or possi-
BILE? Can not trace back results to
causes? If at times are not able to dis
eover the natural causes to results which we
observe we do not rush without reason TO
the conclusion that the cause is one above
nature, is divine. But let there be suppos-
able cases where the result is so obviously
separated from all natural causes, possible
Imaginable.
TAKE DEATH. FOR INSTANCE
May we not know, and must we not con-
fess that the cause is a supernatural one?
Let it, for instance, be well established that
a man has died. Let 1t be proven beyond
doubt that death holds his limbs in grim
possession; then let a person stand by and
with mere word command the dead to arise.
and the dead arises; is that anything thar
could be traced back to human or natural
tcrce? Human reason knows that in certain
clear manifest cases the result of power is
not from human or a created cause That
we DO not know all the powers of nature is
true, as 1t is that persons who know less of
the powers of nature than we ourselves might
De willing to attribute to supernatural agen
sies results which we know to be natural, but