The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-08-03
POPULAR APoLoGETIcs.
Adapted From the German OF Rev.
Peter Mikes, S. j., by Rev.
James Watcher.
50. The Miracles of Christ.

Objection: If Christ was God lie
had to prove His divinity by miracles.
But it is just the miracles OF Christ
which are drawn into doubt.
Answer: 0) All infdels atheists,
patheistS, rationalists, etc. must as
a matter of course deny miracles with
out further scientific investigation for
the simple theoretical reason that a
single miracle makes their standpoint
untenable. The dogma which holds all
inidels captive is: There are no mir
acles. otherwise there is a God
CD BY the manner in which inhdels
try to get by the plainest and histor-
ically well-attested miracles of Christ
they fall either into glazing absurdi-
ties or show their lack of love Of truth
as the following few articles will
plainly show.
90 Christ worked His miracles in
public before all the people, before
friends and enemies without prepare
ton, without any equipment, by a
mere touch of the hand, mere word.
and sometimes also on the absent by
a mere act of the will.
He worked miracles of all kinds on
ifeless nature (e. G., calming the
Storm, on men, on the dead, on spir-
its. He healed all manner Of diseases,
not only fevers, but also inCurable,
chronic maladies: Ieprosy, palsy Of
thirty-eight years standing and organ
ic defects, as dumbness, deafness,
blindness (even from BIRTH, and all
this without natural remedies.
He shows His power over the ele-
ments: He commands the winds and
the waves, walks on the waters and
commands Peter to do the same;
changes water into wine; makes the
barren fig tree wither by mere word
and twice He multiplies the bread
miraculously.
He shows His power over death: AS
far as we know He raises three per
sons to life and finally Himself.
His contemporaries do not doubt
His miraculous powers and His enc
mics openly acknowledge them, only
they attribute them to the power of
the devil. (Cf. Matt. XII, 24). The
modern doubling comes too late.
There is a great difference between
the miracles of Christ and those of
the prophets of the Old Law. Christ
works miracles by His own power,
the prophets by invoking the Divinity;
Christ works miracles in all spheres,
the prophets not; Christ works also
al a distance, the prophets not; Christ
gives the same power to His apostles
by a mere word, the prophets not.
Thus the manner of working miracles
shows the divinity of Christ.
But why did so many contempt.
raries of Jesus remain unbelieving?
Prof DR.. Endler answers correctly:
The reason is the free, but bad will"
tDie Gottheit Christi-the Divinity Of
Christ. PIP 165-170). He shows this
in detail by the conduct of the Phara-
sees at the healing of the man born
blind First they do not want to ad-
nit the fact of the healing; then they
doubt that the man was ever blind;
when this is proved to them by the
man and his parents, they do not want
to draw the plain conclusion (the di-
vine power manifested, hence the
divinity of Christi; they seek excuses,
even the most ridiculous are good
enough; they say that the miracle
was worked on the Sabbath, hence was
a breaking of the Sabbath, and there
fore not from Cod
They said to the healed man: "Give
glory to God. We know that this
man is sinner" That is, deny the
miracle. But as the man adhered to
his saying, they cursed him. 1--WE
know that God spoke to Moses: but as
to this man, we know not from
whence he is. g. The man an
swered and said to them: Why, here
in is wonderful thing that you know
not from whence he is, and he hath
opened my eyes. Unless this
man were Of God, he could not do any
thing" And they cast him out of the
Synagogue John Ky: the last an
swer of infidelity!
AS it was formerly so it is today:
to find the truth one must be honest
and well meaning.
Excuses are cheap; one would have
to be very stupid indeed if he just
wants it, not to be able to find any
difficulties and excuses. Has there
ever been lawsuit where lawyers
did not find objections even against
the clearest case?
For this reason apologists have not
been able to silence all opponents,
though they have splendidly defended
the cause Of truth and convincingly
for every honest man.
If we deny the miracles and the
supernatural in the Gospels, the Cos
pels become absolutely unintelIigible