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This afternoon I was talking with my colleague, who is a Muslim… he seems to be knowledgeable on the subject even if he is not very observant… we were comparing our faiths’ similarities and differences. After my question about whether, among the Muslims, there are enlightened people who perform miracles or exorcise, he answered me that there were no such people in the Islamic world. At most, there are healers who often turn out to be charlatans, as it also happens with us. So I ask you, is it possible that Allah does not give proofs (if you can call them so) through mystics? Personally, I believe that God is the same – whether we call him God or Allah or Buddha is another matter.
Thank you for your time.
Paolo
Dear Paolo,
1. Miracles are granted by God for two reasons: to sustain the faith of the believers and to confirm the orthodoxy of a certain doctrine or the holiness of a person.
2. Regarding the first reason St. Thomas writes:
According to St. Thomas, “the Holy Spirit effectively provides the Church with those things which are needed for salvation, and to this the charismatic graces are directed.
Now just as the gift of tongues and the gift of speech are necessary to bring to the others the knowledge received from God, so it is necessary for the word to be confirmed in order to become credible”.
And this happens through the performance of miracles, as we read in Mk 16:20: ‘The Lord confirmed their word by the wonders that accompanied it’.
And rightly so. For it is natural for man to discover intelligible truth through sensible phenomena. Therefore, just as the man, guided by natural reason, can arrive at a certain knowledge of God through natural effects, so through certain supernatural effects, called miracles, he can arrive at a certain supernatural knowledge of the truths of faith. And so the performance of miracles is part of the charismatic graces’1.
3. And about the second: “For two reasons God grants man to perform miracles.
First and foremost, to confirm the truth that someone teaches. For since the truths of faith exceed the capacity of human reason, they cannot be proved by human reason, but must be proved by arguments of divine power; so that by the fact that one performs works that only God can do, all believe the divine origin of what is thus affirmed. As when one presents letters stamped with the royal seal, all believe that what is contained in them proceeds from the king’s will.
Secondly, to demonstrate the presence of God in man through the grace of the Holy Spirit: that is, so that, when a man does the works of God, it may be believed that God dwells in him through grace. That is why St Paul wrote to the Galatians: “He who gives you the Spirit and works wonders in you” (Gal 3:5).
Now, concerning Christ, both things had to be made manifest to men: namely, that God was in him by grace, not by adoption, but by union; and that his supernatural doctrine came from God. Therefore, it was most fitting for him to perform miracles. Hence his words: “If ye will not believe me, believe my works” (John 10:38). And again: ‘The works which the Father has given me to do bear witness to me’ (Jn 5:36)” (Summa Theologica, III, 43, 1).
4. How can God approve with miracles a religion other than the one that God Himself has established, that Jesus Christ, God made flesh, has?
No wonder then that outside the Catholic Church there are no real miracles.
5. Muslims too, however, need miracles and graces.
Therefore, when they have the opportunity, Muslims have recourse to the saints of the Catholic Church, especially St. Anthony.
When they do not have this opportunity, they turn elsewhere, as you have mentioned, with all the fears and superstitions that characterize such practices.
6. As you see, it is an inestimable grace to be a Christian and to be a Catholic.
I remember you to the Lord and I bless you.
Padre Angelo
1 S. Thomas, Summa Theologica, II-II, 178, 1.