Why are there no more public miracles?

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Cassianus

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Hi,

I wonder why is it that there are no public miracles in the western world these days? The kind of miracles that not just 1 or a few close people experience?

I’m studying the history of Europe during the period of what’s usually termed the ‘Dark Ages’ after ‘the fall of the Roman Empire’ (although this is ambiguous & a later assertion), 4-500’s & onwards, I’ve come to realize what an incredible power miracles had on society & the conversion of Europe to Christianity & specifically Catholic Christianity as opposed to Arianism. For example, Gregory of Tours history of the franks, the bishops & monastics of Nicene Christianity performed a lot of miracles which the Arians couldn’t do & this had the effect of eventually converting the goths to Catholicism. I believe Gregory was right because at that time, the goths, who were Arians, were more powerful politically & militarily than the early franks.

Many times miracles was associated with relics of saints, but not always.

Imagine that at least someone of all the people you knew had personally experienced some kind of miracle, such as being miraculously healed or seeing an apparition of Christ or a Saint etc.
 
Hoosier_Daddy said:
What makes you think there are not?

Just wait a while.
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Because I would hear about it more, if not from the newspapers, at least from the Christians.

In 2012, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared for 3 days in a row to a Syriac-Orthodox immigrant congregation in a poor suburb of Stockholm, Sweden. This was reported on in the Swedish media as well, but the attitude was that “it was a fraud but we rather not say it 'cuz it’d break the hearts of the refugees who’ve suffered enough”.

But I know that this apparition had a powerful effect on all the Christians of the whole country.

This is 1 that I know of, but are miracles & apparitions always restricted to the already believing?
 
I enjoyed the book “Miracles Do Happen” by Sr. Briege McKenna, who has a healing ministry. My edition is from 1987; that one is from a 2002 printing.

You can take a trip to Naples and find a miracle three times a year.

But— ultimately, you don’t have to take a pilgrimage to a far-off place to encounter God. God is at work every day in our lives, and Jesus is present in every tabernacle. Not in a poetic sense, but in a very real, practical sense. We just have to have that awareness. And once you do have that awareness— while those occasional amazing brushes are still amazing and beautiful, you don’t need to rely on them.

On a totally different note, living in the South, I’ve heard about how older people have stories of the amazing gifts of the Holy Spirit that popped up in their (non-Catholic) churches all the time. It was a very charismatic sort of environment within their memory. Nowadays, though, that charism isn’t nearly as much on display. It’s been theorized that it’s partly because of the tepidness and lack of faith as society grows more secularized. Even Jesus was prevented from working miracles during his time on earth when there was no faith.
 
I just got done with a very good, detailed book on Lourdes. According to the doctors there, the Medical Bureau of Lourdes, there have been at least 10,000 miraculous cures at Lourdes, but the Church is so incredibly strict on what evidence it will accept that they have “officially” approved only about 70 or so.
 
Cassianus said:
Because I would hear about it more, if not from the newspapers, at least from the Christians.

In 2012, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared for 3 days in a row to a Syriac-Orthodox immigrant congregation in a poor suburb of Stockholm, Sweden. This was reported on in the Swedish media as well, but the attitude was that “it was a fraud but we rather not say it 'cuz it’d break the hearts of the refugees who’ve suffered enough”.

But I know that this apparition had a powerful effect on all the Christians of the whole country.

This is 1 that I know of, but are miracles & apparitions always restricted to the already believing?
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All of the miraculous things that have happened to people I know have already been believers. I think Fatima and Lourdes and the apparitions of Mary in Egypt are the closest that I know of to public miracles. Actually, they are public miracles, not close at all. They were definitely public. That said, miraculous things happen to people all the time, every day. They are normally solitary events meant for that person alone, and these events seldom get any publicity. I’ll bet if you canvassed everyone you know, you will find many people who have had miraculous healings, heard voices, seen apparitions, etc. I know many of these people myself.
 
Cassianus said:
Hi,

I wonder why is it that there are no public miracles in the western world these days? The kind of miracles that not just 1 or a few close people experience?

I’m studying the history of Europe during the period of what’s usually termed the ‘Dark Ages’ after ‘the fall of the Roman Empire’ (although this is ambiguous & a later assertion), 4-500’s & onwards, I’ve come to realize what an incredible power miracles had on society & the conversion of Europe to Christianity & specifically Catholic Christianity as opposed to Arianism. For example, Gregory of Tours history of the franks, the bishops & monastics of Nicene Christianity performed a lot of miracles which the Arians couldn’t do & this had the effect of eventually converting the goths to Catholicism. I believe Gregory was right because at that time, the goths, who were Arians, were more powerful politically & militarily than the early franks.

Obviously, God can and does perform miracles even today. It is possible that we have become so cynical and skeptical that we fail to see them. Beyond that, if you have received the gift of eternal life there is no greater miracle. As mentioned before, the Eucharist as well. In Biblical times, Jesus used miracles to authenticate His message and deity. Today, He speaks primarily through His Word.😃

Many times miracles was associated with relics of saints, but not always.

Imagine that at least someone of all the people you knew had personally experienced some kind of miracle, such as being miraculously healed or seeing an apparition of Christ or a Saint etc.
Click to expand...
 
With all due respect, try looking at things in your own life that shouldn’t have worked out as well as they did. Those are miracles! Maybe not as public as you are meaning, but they happen all the time!
 
Another thing to consider–Miracles do not cause belief. The Hebrews saw all the 10 plagues, and the pillar of fire, and the seas split. They know God did it. However, the first thing they did afterward was worship a calf.

Miracles prove God exists. They do not necessarily make one become closer to God, which is probably why Christians don’t rave about them as much as they should. Not to mention it removes all excuses.

There is the fact that in the Bible, huge events like the exodus and Jesus ministry, and even smaller ones like the events in Tobit, are spaced out by time, so it’s not an everyday thing even there.

With that in mind, there’s just as much supernatural craziness now as ever.
 
Apparition at Zeitoun: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Zeitoun

both, as the wiki articles point out “reported in the newspapers”.

Lourdes cures reported by BBC: bbc.com/news/world-europe-26334964

French Nun cured, reported in Daily Mail: dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1347175/Beatification-Pope-John-Paul-II-French-nun-recovered-Parkinsons-miracle.html

Costa Rican Mom cured, reported in HuffPo: huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/21/floribeth-mora-pope-john-paul_n_5187559.html

Padre Pio miracles, reported in Belfast Telegraph: belfasttelegraph.co.uk/life/features/padre-pio-all-they-needed-was-a-miracle-29572740.html

Eucharistic Miracle of Buenos Aires, reported in American Thinker Mag: americanthinker.com/articles/2013/09/what_the_secular_media_doesnt_know_about_pope_francis.html

Numerous Eucharistic Miracles, reported in Cleveland News Herald: google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=&oq=cleveland+news+herald&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4TSNP_enUS513US514&q=cleveland+news+herald&gs_l=hp…0l3j0i22i30l2.0.0.0.6528…0.kjealSONKl4

Sometimes you need to “look”, not just wait to hear about things.
QUOTE]

Yes.
[/quote]
 
Christianus_Dei said:
Another thing to consider–Miracles do not cause belief. The Hebrews saw all the 10 plagues, and the pillar of fire, and the seas split. They know God did it. However, the first thing they did afterward was worship a calf.

Miracles prove God exists. They do not necessarily make one become closer to God, which is probably why Christians don’t rave about them as much as they should. Not to mention it removes all excuses.

There is the fact that in the Bible, huge events like the exodus and Jesus ministry, and even smaller ones like the events in Tobit, are spaced out by time, so it’s not an everyday thing even there.

With that in mind, there’s just as much supernatural craziness now as ever.
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Good point…the good thief on the cross believed, not because he saw Jesus rise from the dead, but because he saw Jesus die for His love for mankind!
 
I think that if the skeptics today lived in the time of the Apostles, they would throw out most of their miracles as well labeling them as just magic, trickery, or hysteria.

It is difficult to absolutely prove that a miracle took place. Especially under the strick test tube type of proof. Miracles simply don’t happen that way, because they just happen and the last thing on a person’s mind is whether they can prove it is a miracle. So when it happens, it happens without the proof that science requires. And there are lots of reasons that can be dreampt up to explain a miracle away.

So we do not live in a world that accepts miracles even if they do happen right before our eyes. So much for our public miracles.
 
There’s another aspect to this I don’t think anyone has raised so far–that of unbelief by those to whom God would wish to bestow such blessings:

Matt. 13:
[53] And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there,
[54] and coming to his own country he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?
[55] Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?
[56] And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?”
[57] And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.”
[58] And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.

Sometimes familiarity does breed contempt, as well as unbelief. At one time faith was an integral part of our culture. People gave tacit acknowledgement of God’s existence and to their duty to serve him and others. Not now. We have tossed God out with all the values we held for centuries, and then we wonder why we don’t see any great miracles. God doesn’t operate in a vacuum. If people don’t want him, he respects that and leaves us alone–at least in ways discernable to us. He continues to sustain us and to desire our love, but if we’re not willing to listen to him or obey him we cannot complain if he withholds his richest blessings from us.
 
I find it interesting in our times, there are miracles that happen, but they are usually small scale, and most, they are not clear miracles, or definite supernatural acts, there are usually other explanations.

But if some of the biblical miracles happened in our world today, like the parting of the red sea, manna falling from heaven in front of thousands of people, this would be different, there would be many youtube videos of this event, there would be NO denying it was supernatural in nature.

In my opinion, its almost like God does not want to show his hand in the modern world too much, not like biblical days anyway.
 
mikekle said:
I find it interesting in our times, there are miracles that happen, but they are usually small scale, and most, they are not clear miracles, or definite supernatural acts, there are usually other explanations.

But if some of the biblical miracles happened in our world today, like the parting of the red sea, manna falling from heaven in front of thousands of people, this would be different, there would be many youtube videos of this event, there would be NO denying it was supernatural in nature.

In my opinion, its almost like God does not want to show his hand in the modern world too much, not like biblical days anyway.
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We have all the major miracles laid out in the bible…God doesn’t have to reinforce His power today…except for healing of people’s suffering.
 
mikekle said:
I find it interesting in our times, there are miracles that happen, but they are usually small scale, and most, they are not clear miracles, or definite supernatural acts, there are usually other explanations.

But if some of the biblical miracles happened in our world today, like the parting of the red sea, manna falling from heaven in front of thousands of people, this would be different, there would be many youtube videos of this event, there would be NO denying it was supernatural in nature.

In my opinion, its almost like God does not want to show his hand in the modern world too much, not like biblical days anyway.
Click to expand...
According to your scenario the Jewish leaders who had Jesus put to death should have repented and announced that Jesus was their Messiah as soon as they heard the reports from the guards that they had seen angels and the tomb was empty. But that didn’t happen, did it? They bribed the guards to keep quiet and hushed it up. Even in a time when the people were looking forward to their Messiah and longed for deliverance, in spite Jesus preaching and doing innumerable miracles in their midst, they didn’t believe. People simply will not believe, so they cannot believe.

Every public miracle since Jesus’ day haw had its deniers, no matter how many witnesses there were or what miracles took place. Jesus was taunted while he hung on the cross. The leaders of the people yelled for him to come down and then they’d believe. But Jesus knew they wouldn’t. As he told the rich man in hell, “Even if one were to be raised from the dead they will not believe.”

Jesus proved this when he raised Lazarus from the dead. And what was the reaction of the leaders of the people? Did they sing God’s praises and declare Jesus the Messiah? No, they plotted to kill both Jesus and Lazarus. It’s nice to dream about what might be, “if only…” but reality is quite different from armchair philosophizing. Jesus knew best what men are and what they will do. He knows that one must be converted in one’s heart before one can truly believe, not the other way around.
 
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