The Nature and Significance of Miracles

WHAT IS THE NATURE and significance of miracles in Catholic theology, and why do saints play a pivotal role? To answer this question, and to provide some theological context, the following statements have been compiled from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC).

What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason: we believe “because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived”. So “that the submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit”. Thus the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church's growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability “are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all”; they are “motives of credibility” (motiva credibilitatis), which show that the assent of faith is “by no means a blind impulse of the mind”. (CCC156)

“A saint is someone who has lived a life of great virtue, whom we look to and admire. But if that's all we emphasise, we flatten out sanctity. The saint is also someone who's now in heaven, living in this fullness of life with God. And the miracle, to put it bluntly, is the proof of it”. (Mother Teresa’s Two Miracles)

“By canonizing some of the faithful, i.e., by solemnly proclaiming that they practiced heroic virtue and lived in fidelity to God's grace, the Church recognizes the power of the Spirit of holiness within her and sustains the hope of believers by proposing the saints to them as models and intercessors. “The saints have always been the source and origin of renewal in the most difficult moments in the Church’s history”. Indeed, “holiness is the hidden source and infallible measure of her apostolic activity and missionary zeal”. (CCC 828)

The intercession of the saints. “Being more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly in holiness. . . . They do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, as they proffer the merits which they acquired on earth through the one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus . . . . So by their fraternal concern is our weakness greatly helped”. (LG 49; cf. 1 Tim 2:5)

“Do not weep, for I shall be more useful to you after my death and I shall help you then more effectively than during my life”.
(St. Dominic, dying, to his brothers).

I want to spend my heaven in doing good on earth
(St. Thérèse of Lisieux, The Final Conversations, tr. John Clarke, Washington: ICS, 1977, 102.) (CCC 956)

In the communion of saints, “a perennial link of charity exists between the faithful who have already reached their heavenly home, those who are expiating their sins in purgatory and those who are still pilgrims on earth. between them there is, too, an abundant exchange of all good things”. In this wonderful exchange, the holiness of one profits others, well beyond the harm that the sin of one could cause others. Thus recourse to the communion of saints lets the contrite sinner be more promptly and efficaciously purified of the punishments for sin. (CCC 1475)

 “Heal the sick!” (Mt 10:8) The Church has received this charge from the Lord and strives to carry it out by taking care of the sick as well as by accompanying them with her prayer of intercession. She believes in the life-giving presence of Christ, the physician of souls and bodies. This presence is particularly active through the sacraments, and in an altogether special way through the Eucharist, the bread that gives eternal life and that St. Paul suggests is connected with bodily health. (Cf. Jn 6:54, 58; 1 Cor 11:30). (CCC 1509)