By Jean Rolex, CM
Our interest in this article is to explore why miracles have value for missionaries. But first of all, what is usually considered a miracle? Sometimes the word miracle is used metaphorically to indicate something that is highly unlikely. But in a slightly narrower sense, a miracle is when you find something that cannot be explained by everything we know about nature. The miracle in this case is something that is inexplicable. And as such, it arouses admiration. Today, however, miracles remain a very open and debated issue. It is a very ambiguous subject. On the one hand, there are those who seek miracles at all costs; they are always on the lookout for extraordinary events, grasping at them and their immediate usefulness. On the other hand, there are those who give no place at all to the miracle; on the contrary, they regard it with a certain weariness. There are many writers who affirm miracles as “a violation” of the order of nature. Among them are the deists who reject miracles as denying the Providence of God. Agnostics and positivists also reject them. This led Auguste Comte to consider miracles as the fruit of imagination. Hegel and the neo-Hegelians also claim that miracles are meaningless and therefore have no future. Therefore, they assume that miracles are an appeal to ignorance.
In spite of everything, is it true that miracles have no value? Can miracles be considered as an ornament, a demonstration? Can miracles be eliminated in the life of a Christian without weakening the whole fabric of the Gospel? What can we think of this phenomenon, which has accompanied the whole history of salvation and continues to accompany the life of Christ, the Church and the missionaries today? The miracles of Christ are “a distilled expression of God’s mercy in action” (Fr. Nelson). In fact, the value of the miracles performed by God lies in the fact that his presence surrounds his children everywhere, no one is left out, not even those who want to escape it, just as no one escapes the air we breathe or the love of a Father (Cf. IX, 1118-1119). St. Vincent often returned to this presence to confide his worries to her, to affirm his absolute confidence in her protection. In fact, he expected everything, with good will, from the Providence of God (Cf. IV, 499). In the miracles of Christ, St Vincent discovered the true kind face of the Father, who is the God of Jesus Christ. A God who continues to act and who precedes us. He rightly exhorted his missionaries to do God’s will in everything. For in so doing, let us imitate Christ, evangeliser of the poor, who had as his rule: to do God’s will in everything (Cf. XI, 448).
Indeed, miracles in the Bible are never an end in themselves, they are preferably an incentive and a reward to faith. It is a factor in God’s Providence over men. Hence, the glory of God and the good of man are the main objectives of every miracle. the main objectives of every miracle. Therefore God does not perform them to repair physical defects in His creation, nor are they intended to produce, nor do they produce, disorder or discord; nor do they contain any evil, ridiculous, useless or meaningless element. In this sense, miracles are not on the same plane as mere wonders, tricks, works of ingenuity or magic. The efficacy, the usefulness, the purpose of the work and the manner of its accomplishment clearly show that it must be attributed to divine power. Indeed, the value of miracles lies in the fact that they awaken the faith of missionaries in Christ and open them to the hope of a future world. Faith that stimulates searching and daring. Today, more than ever, we need missionaries who are daring seekers. Seekers of new solutions to our problems, seekers of new ways, not ways that lead nowhere, but ways that lead us to eternity. As Vincentian missionaries, it is time to dare more, to embark on a new way of life, a new encounter with the Lord and with others.
According to St. Vincent, the most important part of our vocation is to work for the salvation of the poor people of the countryside, and everything else is only incidental. For a Vincentian missionary, continuing the mission of Christ means imitating him and putting on his Spirit (Cf. XI, 410-412). St. Vincent always reminded his confreres that imitating Christ meant going to the poor in the name of Jesus Christ and reminding them that, in serving the poor, one discovers the living image of Jesus Christ. Indeed, in serving the poor, one serves Jesus Christ (Cf. XI, 240). This is why the missionaries who left everything to go to difficult places saw in the miracles of Christ signs of the Kingdom of God in the world. They also discovered that in the life of Christ, Evangeliser of the poor, his miracles accompanied his preaching. This preaching awakened missionary awareness in many missionaries. The joy of going to the most distant and most abandoned countries (Cf. XI, 362). The preaching of Christ makes the Vincentian missionaries closer to that St. Vincent, sensitive to the calls of the most distant countries, saying: “there is nothing I want so much” (III, 260). The readiness to go on mission becomes, for St. Vincent, like the criterion of authenticity of the Vincentian vocation in the Society (Cf. XI, 289).
Certainly, the greatest miracle in the universe that a Vincentian missionary needs is Jesus Christ, the “Rule of the mission”. Definitely, the miracles of Christ show that God has come near in Christ. He already reigns in our midst. He makes mission and charity possible (Cf. IX, 537). They help Vincentian missionaries to recognise the light of Truth. They open them to the goodness of God, who wanted to share our humanity. In reality, the miracles of Christ are not an exhibition of power, but signs of God’s love, which act where man’s faith is found. Hence, miracles open the hearts of missionaries to the missionary project of the Church.
If in a miracle God shows his love for man. Now it is also our turn to show God our love by fighting against evil and serving the poor, our “lords and masters”. In the life of the Vincentian missionaries, the miracles of Christ are not only to remove a problem, but to give new life.
