Miracles, wonders and signs

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"He healed the sick", after James Tissot (1836-1902), Brooklyn Museum

According to the testimony of Peter on the day of Pentecost. Jesus is the one through whom God has accomplished "miracles, wonders, and signs." These are God's works (in Greek "erga") that He performs through His Son with whom He is united to the point of being mutually in each other. It is these miraculous works that testify to this unity.

• Miracles (in Greek "dunameis") are "acts or manifestations of power." These are therefore observable facts.
• Signs (in Greek "semeion") are the meaning they take within God's plan of Salvation. During the miracles reported by John, Jesus emphasizes this term.
• Wonders (in Greek "terata") illustrate their nature as inaccessible to the ordinary laws of men but accessible to their Creator. However, not all wonders are works of God. Moses turned his staff into a serpent at Pharaoh's request who demanded a wonder, but his magicians did the same.

All these aspects are united in God's works. Thus, when Jesus walks on water, He performs a stupendous act (miracle), a symbol (sign) prophetic of His victory over Evil. This unity of the miracle is explained by Jesus Himself during the episode of the Bread of Heaven that follows the second multiplication of the loaves. Jesus reproaches the crowd for following Him not for the sign He had just given, but for the wonder of the multiplication of the loaves. The interlocutors then ask Him how to contribute to God's works, and Jesus defines them: "The work of God is that you believe in the one He has sent." Faith is therefore fundamentally linked to the miracle.

The miracle is linked to the Creator God

God is the author of Creation, accomplished by Jesus, the Word of God: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." All the laws of Creation are therefore accessible to Him and inherent to His nature: "Through him all things came to be; without him nothing came to be." The power of the miracle is constitutive of His divinity and if He performs them, it is to realize, through signs, His mission of Redeeming humanity.

Who associates man by faith

The miracle is accessible to those "who believe in Jesus" and do so "in His name", animated by deep faith in His intercession. Man is thus participant in God's works as the psalmist proclaims: "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man, that you care for him? You made him a little lower than God and crowned him with glory and honor; you made him ruler over the works of your hands, you put everything under his feet."

This is why man can, in return, praise his Creator: "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well."

However, God's power has only one limit: man's free will and his irrevocable power to choose life or death.

In Maria Valtorta

1. The miracle is union with God

1.1 - Obedience to the Law is already union with God

"John told me about the miracle you performed at Cana" said Andrew the Apostle to Jesus. "We were hoping so much that you would do one at Capernaum... And You told us that you do not perform miracles without first fulfilling the Law. So why at Cana? Why there and not in your homeland?" - "Every obedience to the Law is union with God and thus an increase of our power. The miracle is proof of union with God, of God's benevolent presence, and His agreement with us. That is why I wanted to fulfill my duty as an Israelite before starting the series of wonders." - "But you were not bound to observe the Law." - "Why? As Son of God, no. But as Son of the Law, yes."

1.2 - The miracle is not taught, it is obtained.

To Judas who asks Him: "Will you teach us to perform miracles also this year?", Jesus answers:

"The miracle is not taught. It is not a game of entertainers. The miracle comes from God, obtained by one who is in grace with God. If you learn to be good, you will have grace and obtain the miracle."

1.3 - The miracle is always proof of God's presence

It is a scandal in Magdala: two lovers of Mary Magdalene have killed each other. The dying man, stabbed in the heart, is a father of a family. Jesus has him brought home and heals him out of pity for the suffering of his wife and children. The mother of the wanderer wants to reprimand him.

"Woman, be silent. Show the same mercy you have received. Your house is sanctified by the miracle, which is always proof of God's presence. That is why I could not perform it in the house of sin. You, at least, keep your house as such, even if he does not know it. Care for him now. It is right that he suffer somewhat. Be good, woman. And you. And you, the little ones. Farewell." Jesus later reflects on His attitude and comments at length.

1.4 - One cannot confuse a wonder from God with one from the Demon.

Jesus has just delivered a possessed man, but the Pharisees sow terror among the miraculously healed: Jesus delivered him from a demon, but the one who replaces it will be more terrible. The healed man, completely panicked, runs after Jesus asking Him to return him to his former state. Jesus warns the crowd to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and warns: "everything they do in darkness will be brought to light." Then He reassures the healed man:

"There is a sure way to know if a wonder comes from God or the demon. And it is what the soul experiences. If the extraordinary event comes from God, it pours peace into the soul — peace and a joy full of majesty. If it comes from a demon, it brings trouble and suffering along with that wonder. And it is also from God's words that peace and joy come, whereas from those of a demon, whether spirit or man, come trouble and suffering. Likewise, peace and joy come from the closeness of God, whereas from the neighbours of evil spirits or men come trouble and suffering.".

2. One does not ask God for miracles for human purposes

2.1 - The misdirection of the miracle leads to pride

Commenting for Maria Valtorta on the temptation in the desert, Jesus says:

"The miracle, the flame from Heaven, does not lend itself to become a wicker circle for one to make a crown of... And one does not tempt God by asking Him for miracles for human ends. That was what Satan wanted. The motive given was a pretext; the truth was: “Glorify Yourself as the Messiah” to lead me to the other concupiscence, that of pride."

2.2 - The miracle can be invisible and obtained by invisible prayer

Dina has just had her third daughter. Philip, her husband, is disappointed not to have a boy and becomes hurtful and cruel. Jesus invisibly heals his heart by speaking of a son he will have. Later, the apostles question Jesus about one of His comments on the relationship of women to prayer:

"Prayer is the conversation of the heart with God and should be the habitual state of man. Woman, because of her more secluded life than ours and her stronger emotional faculties, is more inclined than we are to this conversation with God. In her, she finds comfort for her pains, relief for her weariness, which are not only those of household and childbirth, but also those of enduring us men, she finds what dries tears and brings a smile to the heart. For she knows how to speak with God, and will know even more in the future. Men will be the giants of teaching, women will always be those who, through their prayers, support the giants and even the world, for many misfortunes will be avoided through their prayers and many punishments averted. Thus they will perform the miracle, invisible most of the time and known only to God, but no less real."

"You too, today, performed an invisible but real miracle, did you not, Master?" asks Thaddaeus. "Yes, brother."
"It would have been better to make it visible," observes Philip.

"Did you want me to turn the little girl into a boy? The miracle, in reality, is an alteration of fixed things, thus a beneficial disorder, which God grants to consent to man's prayer, to show him that He loves him or to persuade him that He is Who He is. But since God is order, He does not excessively violate it. The little girl was born a female and remains female.

2.3 - Faith precedes the miracle

At Gamla, the inhabitants use veteran Romans as overseers of convicts whom they use for building their ramparts. Whips fall on the backs of the starving. Jesus intervenes with a surprised and upset guard. Inhabitants introduce Jesus: "He is the Rabbi of Galilee. The one who commands illnesses, winds, waters, demons and changes stones to bread, and nothing resists Him."

"Perform a miracle and I will believe," challenges the overseer. "One does not ask for miracles to believe," replies Jesus. "One asks for faith to believe and thus obtain the miracle. Faith and compassion for neighbor.

2.4 The miracle is generally the fruit of holiness, but sometimes also of a soul sold to Darkness

Judas, increasingly rebellious, arrogantly claims before the other apostles that he has performed miracles on his own initiative. The apostles worry about this with Jesus. An opportunity arises:

"Master," says Matthew, "Elisha's words remind me of a question some asked us today on the way. They asked, because an extraordinary event had occurred in a village, if the miracle is always proof of holiness. I told them yes, but they said no. Indeed, in this village at the borders of Samaria, the one who performed extraordinary things was certainly not a righteous man. I silenced them by saying that man always judges poorly and that the one they said was not righteous might be more so than them. What do you say?"

"I say you are all right, each in your own way. You in saying the miracle is always proof of holiness: generally it is so, and also in saying one should not judge so as not to err. But they too were right to suspect other sources for what man had done extraordinarily."

"What sources?" asks the Iscariot.

"Dark sources. There are creatures already adorers of Satan, because they worship pride, who to impose themselves on others sell themselves to the Dark One to have Him as a friend," Jesus replies.

"But is it possible? Isn't it a legend of pagan countries that man can make deals with the devil or infernal spirits?" asks John astonished.

"It is possible. Not as told in pagan legends, not with money or material contracts, but by adhering to Evil, by choosing, by giving oneself to Evil to have a short hour of triumph. Truly I tell you that those who sell themselves to the Accursed to achieve their ends are more numerous than one believes."

"And do they succeed? Do they really get what they ask for?" asks Andrew.

"Not always and not everything. But they do get something."

2.5 - The miracle cannot be granted where there is no faith

Jesus has well received the call for help from Lazarus' sisters who are dying. But He delays returning to Bethany until suddenly He decides to go. The apostles want to prevent Him: it endangers His life!

"Let me do, then, good while I am free to do it. The hour will come when I will neither be able to move a finger nor say a word to perform the miracle. The world will be empty of my power. Terrible hour of punishment for man. Not for Me. For man who will not have wanted to love Me. Hour that will repeat, by man's will who will have rejected Divinity until making himself godless, a disciple of Satan and his cursed son. Hour that will come when the end of this world is near. Non-faith as sovereign master will make null my miracle power. It is not that I can lose it, but the miracle cannot be granted where there is no faith or desire to obtain it, where the miracle would be an object of contempt and an instrument of evil, using the good obtained to do greater evil. Now I can still do the miracle, and do it to bring glory to God."

2.6 - The two requirements in the request for a miracle

Regarding the resurrection of Lazarus, Jesus comments to Maria Valtorta:

"There are two forms of demand in the request for a miracle. To one God submits with love. To the other, He turns His back with indignation. The first is the one who asks, as I taught to ask-, without distrust and without discouragement, and who does not think that God cannot hear because God is good, and the one who is good answers prayer because God is powerful and can do all. This is love and God answers the one who loves. The other form is the demand of the rebellious who want God as their servant and to bow to their wickedness and give them what they do not give Him: love and obedience. This form is an offense that God punishes by withholding His graces."

3. The miracle serves Salvation

3.1 - The miracle is a reward, a spur, or a warning

"For the good, the miracle is a just reward. For the less good, it is to lead them to true goodness. For the wicked, sometimes it is to shake them, to convince them that I exist and that God is with Me. The miracle is a gift and this gift is for the good. But He who is Mercy and sees how heavy men are and that only a prodigious event can shake them, also resorts to it to be able to say: 'I have done everything for you, and it was of no use. Tell Me yourselves, then, what more I should do.'"

3.2 - The miracle benefits only those who walk towards faith

Jesus saves the grandson of Eli, a hostile Pharisee, from a deadly snakebite, who is grateful in the moment of emotion. Jesus acts as a doctor would, which puzzles the apostles.

"Why, Master, did you not perform a spectacular miracle? You should have commanded the venom to leave the child, you should have shown yourself as God. Instead, you sucked the venom out as anyone would."

Judas is not very happy. He wanted something sensational. Others agree: "You should have crushed this enemy with all your power. Did you hear? His venom reappeared immediately..."

"Never mind the venom. Rather observe that if I had acted as you wished, he would say that Beelzebul helped me. In his ruined soul, he can still admit my power as a doctor. No more. The miracle brings faith to those already on this path. But in those who lack humility — faith always proves the presence of humility in a soul — the miracle leads them to blasphemy. Therefore, it is better to avoid this risk by using seemingly human methods."

3.3 - The miracle manifests God's goodness

In Syro-Phœnicia, a shepherd offers Jesus the milk of his ewes. He is reputed. The shepherd asks for a miracle on his sheep.

"Thank you for the milk you have given me. What do you want from me?

— You are the Nazarene, aren't you? The one who performs miracles?

— "I am the one who preaches eternal salvation. I am the Way to the true God, the Truth who gives Himself, the Life who enlivens you. I am not a sorcerer who performs wonders. They are manifestations of my goodness and of your weakness, which needs proofs to believe. But what do you expect from me?"

3.4 - The miracle increases goodness but can precipitate downfall

As the time of the Passion approaches, Jesus prepares His apostles for separation. He will continue to advise them.

Jude Thaddaeus asks: "Could you not do it for all now? I mean: for those who doubt, the guilty, the renegades. Perhaps a miracle..."

"No, brother. The miracle does much good, especially that kind of miracle, when given at the right time and place to persons who are not maliciously guilty. Given to maliciously guilty persons, it increases their guilt because it increases their pride. They take God's gift as a weakness of God begging them, the proud, to allow Him to love them. They take God's gift as the fruit of their great merits. They say to themselves: 'God humbles himself with me because I am holy.'

That is complete ruin then. The ruin of a Mark of Josias, for example, and others with him... Woe, woe to those who choose this satanic path. God's gift becomes for them the poison of Satan. The greatest and most certain proof of the degree of elevation and holy will in a man is to be graced with extraordinary gifts. Very often man becomes intoxicated humanly, and from spiritual he becomes all human, then he descends and becomes demonic."

3.5. - The miracle is the power of the Creator God confronted with man's free will

In Syro-Phœnicia, Jesus is approached by a woman from Sidon, weeping. Her eldest son is blind: under the eyelids, there is nothing. In a silent prayer, with thumbs on both orbits of the child, Jesus prays to His Father. "See! I want it! And praise the Lord!" In the empty eye sockets there are now two magnificent dark-blue eyes. "Here is your son who will be your honor and your peace. Show him to your husband and he will return to your love." The woman bursts into sobs: her husband treats her like a repudiated woman because she had only daughters and a blind boy before becoming sterile. Her last hope was in Jesus.

"Go! Tell Daniel, your husband, that the One who created the worlds has given two clear stars for pupils to the little one dedicated to the Lord. For God is faithful to His promises and He has sworn that whoever believes in Him will see all kinds of wonders. Let him now be faithful to the oath he made and not commit adultery. Tell this to Daniel. Go! Be happy. I bless you and this child and with you, those dear to you."

And later, Jesus comments to Maria Valtorta.

"For those who have faith in Him, God always exceeds the requests of his children and gives even more. Believe this and believe it all. The woman who came from Sidon to find me, with two swords pierced in the secret of her heart, dared only tell me the name of one. It is more painful to reveal certain intimate sufferings than to say: 'I am ill.' But I give her also the second miracle. In the eyes of the world, it may have seemed and it will always seem easier to restore harmony between two spouses separated for a reason now overcome — and thankfully so — than to give pupils to two eyes that were born without them. But no, it is not so. For the One who is the Lord and Creator, making two pupils is as simple as restoring breath to a corpse. The Master of Life and Death, the Master of everything that exists in Creation, certainly does not lack breath of life to infuse anew to the dead and two drops of humoral liquid for a dried-out eye. He only needs to will it to be able to do so. Because it depends solely on His will. But when it is a matter of harmony among men, it requires the "will" of men united to God's desire."

4. The miracle is light for obscured eyes

4.1 - There are saints who perform no miracles and magicians who perform wonders

At a banquet, Felix, a hostile Pharisee, tries to trap Jesus.

"Let Him (Jesus) then explain why Aaron performed no miracles while Moses performed some," loudly shouts Felix.

Jesus answers immediately:

"Moses had to impose himself on the heavy, poorly illuminated, and even opposed mass of Israelites and manage to have influence over them to bend them to the will of God. Man is the eternal savage and eternal child. He is struck by anything out of the ordinary. The miracle is that: a light waved in front of obscured pupils, a noise near plugged ears. It wakes up. It calls attention. It makes people say: 'God is there.'

"That’s what you say, to your advantage," retorts Felix.

"My advantage? And what does it give me more when I perform a miracle? Can I appear greater if I put a blade of grass under my foot? The relation is the same between the miracle and holiness. There are saints who never performed miracles. There are magicians and necromancers who work with dark forces to perform, that is, they do superhuman things but are not holy, and they are demons. I would be Myself, even if I never performed a miracle."

4.2 - The miracle, like the sacramental sign, makes grace tangible

Jesus took with Him James son of Alphaeus, one of the pillars of the future Church and first bishop of Jerusalem. He communicates His instructions on the Church and the sacraments. "What are these things?" asks James.

"They are supernatural and spiritual means, also applied with material means, used to persuade men that the priest really does something. You see, man, if he does not see, does not believe. He always needs something that tells him there is something. For this reason, when I perform miracles, I lay hands, or moisten with saliva, or give a bite of soaked bread. I could perform a miracle by my mere thought. But do you think people would say then: "God performed the miracle"? They would say: "He is healed because it was the time to heal." And they would attribute merit to the doctor, the cures, the physical resistance of the patient. It will be the same for sacraments: forms of cult to administer Grace, or to give it, or to strengthen it in the faithful. John, for example, used immersion in water to represent the purification of sins. In reality, more than the water washing the members, it was the mortification of recognizing oneself as impure for sins committed that was useful."

The miracles performed by Jesus

Specificity of Maria Valtorta’s writings

While the Gospels report about 37 different miracles in 75 stories distributed among the four evangelists, the work of Maria Valtorta counts 152, divided into 80 stories. The difference is explained by taking into account the Resurrection of the Lord (but not the Eucharist, an unclassifiable miracle in typology) as well as similar miracles that exegesis groups but which Maria Valtorta differentiates.. These 80 Gospel stories come from Matthew (24 stories), Mark (24), Luke (23), and John (9). John does not report either the institution of the Eucharist or the Transfiguration which he witnessed. This last Gospel completes the other three. Fascinated by the theological depth and uniqueness of this work, some have tried to dissociate it from the rest, attribute it to another disciple than the Galilean fisherman, and embellish what it no longer said, stripped of the three other components. This is not Maria Valtorta's choice who finds its authenticity only in its conformity to Scripture. Even the unpublished episodes she describes relate to it.

Indeed, Maria Valtorta describes 152 miraculous episodes, including 41 Gospel miracles, so 111 are new. In a miraculous episode, notably healings, there can be several beneficiaries (sometimes several dozens) similar to the multiple healings mentioned by Matthew, Mark, and Luke (For example--).

Not all miracles are described in the Gospel

To preempt challenges raised by Maria Valtorta's narration of unknown facts, Jesus refers those He calls "the quibbling doctors" to the very words of the Gospel:

Jesus said:

When I reveal to you the unknown episodes of my public life, I already hear the chorus of picky doctors who say: "But this fact is not mentioned in the Gospels. How can she say: 'I saw this'?" To them I answer with the words of the Gospels.

"And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among the people" says Matthew.

And again: "Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news preached to them."-

And again: "Woe to you, Chorazin, woe to you Bethsaida, for if the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes... And you, Capernaum, will be exalted to heaven? You will go down to Hades: for if the miracles done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day."

And Mark: "...And great crowds followed him from Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and from beyond the Jordan. Even from Tyre and Sidon, there came to him great crowds, having heard what he had done..."

And Luke: "Jesus went about from village to village, preaching and announcing the Good News of the Kingdom of God, and with him were the twelve and some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities."

And my John: "After this, Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee, and a great crowd followed him because they saw the miracles he performed on the sick."

And since John was present at all the wonders, whatever their nature, that I performed in three years, the Beloved gives me unlimited testimony: "This is the disciple who is testifying about these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. There are also many other things Jesus did; if they were all written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written."

"So? What do the quibbling doctors say now?"

Typology of miracles described in the work

• The first category of miracles demonstrates the power of God over nature (elements, plant and animal kingdoms).

It includes 10 miracles reported by the Gospel and 24 miraculous episodes in Maria Valtorta.

• The second demonstrates His power over demons, i.e. exorcisms.

There are 7 reported by the Gospels and 11 in total in Maria Valtorta.

• The third demonstrates His power over death, i.e. resurrections.

There are 4 (including that of the Lord) reported equally by the Gospels and Maria Valtorta.

• The fourth, the most numerous, demonstrates His power over health over bodies and spirits.
  

There are 20 reported by the Gospels and 113 in Maria Valtorta. This category must be complemented by God's power over hearts. Simply implied in the Gospels, there are 8 explicit in Maria Valtorta.

This typology is detailed in a specific article: Tables of Miracles in the Work of Maria Valtorta

To go further

There is a downloadable PDF "The Thousand Miracles of Jesus": It is a sometimes somewhat summarized compilation, made by Mario Canciani (at the very bottom of the page of all downloadable booklets)