This is really a question for non-believers, obviously. Are miracles possible? Why or why not?
Conceptually possible, sure. The trick would be in verifying a miracle empirically and in knowing for certain that it was, in fact, a miracle.
For example, regarding the issue of miracle healings, there are multiple possibilities, of which I don’t think that any one possibility can be privileged with absolute certainty. Faith has to play some part, if one would decide between them.
Example:
–a woman prays to John Paul II one evening and finds herself inexplicably healed
If one takes it seriously enough to say that, yes, her healing is inexplicable, there are still a few possible explanations, including:
–the fact that our own scientific or medical knowledge is insufficient to explain the phenomenon, does not tell us with absolute certainty that a miracle occurred (to say otherwise would be a “miracle of the gaps” argument)
–it’s unclear whether the mind itself has powers we are not aware of; the fact that she had passionate belief in the holiness of John Paul II, and his ability to intercede with the divine on her behalf, may have played the decisive role in her healing. This could support partisans of parapsychology and the notion that 99% of our brains remain used; if we could “tap” the inner potentialities of the mind, they say, our notions of what is possible and impossible would be transformed. This would be a “faith that moves mountains” example, but – rather than pointing to an external divine power – would point rather to the latent, dormant capabilities of the human psyche.
Indeed, this “internal versus external” dynamic would be hard to differentiate with absolute certainty. If the fact of her healing was
completely external – and all she had to do was ask – she theoretically could have prayed to any other saint, or to God directly, and could have gotten the same results. Yet she was passionately devoted to the memory of John Paul II in particular, which undoubtedly gave her prayers to him a certain emotional intensity that that they may not have had, with any other figure. So was her prayer more effective, more powerful, because she choose an individual with whom she felt such powerful emotional resonance? Again, this blurs the distinction between what she contributed to her own healing, and to what God or John Paul II contributed.
A final explanation, which as a non-Catholic I cannot exclude as a possibility – John Paul II had nothing to do with her healing, either in a direct sense or an indirect sense (through intercession with a higher power), yet some higher power heard her prayed and took compassion on her. In other words, the fact that it was “misdirected” did not preclude the fact that, in compassion, a higher power heard her prayer and answered it.
This is exactly what a Christian could conceive happening, when a pagan prays. That pagan may have “invincible ignorance” regarding God, Mary, and the saints. Yet they are praying to
some higher power – perhaps it was Isis, the Divine Mother – with all their heart and all their soul. Because they are ignorant, through no fault of their own, such God as actually exists (who created them, and loves them) could have taken pity on them, reasoning, “their prayers were really directed towards
me – and to the Blessed Mother – even though they do not realize it. In praying to Isis – the divine Mother – they were really praying to me, however poor and unschooled their understanding.”
In fact, I know of a Seventh Day Adventist who feels confirmed in his faith because he knows his prayers have been answered. A Catholic could say: A. we don’t know if your prayers were actually answered, even though you’re convinced they are and B. even if they were answered, that does not mean that SDA is true, just that a compassionate God considers you his child in spite of your religious affiliation (though it does raise the question of whether God would ever
refrain from answering his prayer, hoping that he thereby comes to the realization that the faith he has chosen is not the right one).
So I see multiple possibilities here, and I don’t see reason alone as being able to arbiter between them. As I see it, there has to be faith.
P.S. I’ve forgotten about the final explanation, which is proposed by certain Protestants – namely, that these miracles are actually the work of Satan.
This is a pretty mean-spirited explanation, at bottom (on the part of Protestants who are hostile to Catholicism), yet I’ve also heard Christians say that many
occult miracles – such trance channeling, the “miraculous” workings of a Ouija board – although supernatural in origin, are nonetheless demonic in nature. Obviously, when Jesus performed his own miracles, this is precisely what many of his interlocuters used as an explanation, that he was channeling the power of demonic forces.
