4. CHRIST'S  MIRACLES

HIS DOCTRINE WAS A REVELATION from God to man. He revealed to men the deep secrets of God, the mysterious inner life of the Trinity, and the secret of God's relations with man, the Incarnation and all that it implies. Because it was a message from God and because its truth was beyond the grasp of the human mind, it was necessary for Christ to give guarantees of the truth of His message. This He did by the miracles He performed. A miracle is a work or an effect that can be produced only by the power of God. It is a finger of God pointing to truth ----- either the truth that Christ was the Son of God, or the truth of the Divine message He was teaching to men. Christ worked miracles to prove that His doctrine was really a Divine message. Since only God can work miracles, it follows that the claim of Christ was true. His message was a Divine message or God, Who worked miracles through Him, is a liar. But God cannot lie. Therefore, the message of Christ is a Divine revelation to men.

THE MIRACLES OF CHRIST proved that He Himself was God. His miracles showed that He had power over all of creation. When He expelled demons from those possessed by devils, He showed His power over the angels. When He caused the Star of Bethlehem to point out the place of His birth, when He caused the sun to be darkened for three hours at the time of His Passion and death, He showed His power over nature. When He changed water into wine at Cana, He showed His power over the inanimate things of the world. When He cured the paralytic, or the man born blind, when He raised Lazarus from the grave, He showed His power over men. He performed so many miracles, so many miracles of different kinds, and at the decision of His own will, that He manifested a Divine command of the whole created world. Since He Himself claimed to be God, and since He  worked so many kinds of miracles at will, we can only agree that He was God.

ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT of His miracles was His transfiguration on Mount Tabor.

Christ had said to His disciples, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For he that will save his life shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for my sake shall find it" (Matt. XVI, 24-25). He was trying to teach His disciples that by imitating His own immolation on the Cross they would find happiness, the happiness of the vision of God. To convince them of this truth, and to give them some inkling of its meaning, He took Peter, James and John to Mount Tabor. There, in their sight, He was transfigured. "His face did shine as the sun: and his garments became white as snow. And behold there appeared to them Moses and Elias talking with them . . . And . . . behold a bright cloud overshadowed them. And, a voice out of the cloud, saying: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him" (Matt. XVII, 2-5). The brilliance which shone from the body of Christ on this occasion was the light of glory transmitted from His Divinity to His human soul and from His soul to His body. Because He possessed the vision of God, Christ had the right to this light of glory from the beginning of His existence in His human nature. But, for the sake of men, this light of glory was deferred until after His Passion and death. On this occasion Christ worked a miracle. He allowed the light of glory to shine in His body. He did this, first to confirm His Apostles in their belief in His words. He did it, secondly to give them a glimpse of the meaning of His words. If a man denies his baser tendencies, if He believes in Christ and keeps the commandments of God out of love for God, he will gain eternal life. After death He will see God face to face, and his soul will be resplendent with the light of Divine glory. At the last resurrection, when his body is reunited to his soul, the light of glory in his soul will give even his body a reflection of the light of glory. When Christ allowed Peter, James and John to see Him transfigured on Tabor, He was giving them a preview of the glory that would come to all men of good will through His Passion and death. The transfiguration of Christ is both a testimonial to the truth of Christ's message and a glimpse of the world to come for all those who love Christ.