Foreword
The most definitive theological treatise ever composed on the nature of miracles, mysticism, and revelations was written in the eighteenth century by Cardinal Lambertini, at that time prefect for the Sacred Congregation for Rites and later to become Pope Benedict XIV. The introduction to a partial English translation done by nineteenth-century English Oratorians provides an excellent framework by which to examine and to appreciate the contents of this book:
The Church began with miracles and divine gifts, and, being one, she continues the same. As the ancient dispensation began with Moses, and was inaugurated with miracles, so it continues from age to age, to the pond of Probatica (cf. Jn 5:2). The dispensation of the gospel is more glorious than that of the law (2 Cor 3:9) and is fulfilled in measure beyond the capacity of its predecessor…. If the miracles of the law ceased not at the death of Moses, and if the record of them is not confined to the Pentateuch, but is continued through the history of kings and prophets, much more are we to expect a similar result in the history of Holy Church. The Acts of the Apostles do but carry on the miraculous record of the Four Gospels; and is there any reason that we should suppose that marvelous gifts, graces, and miracles ceased with the apostolic age? This would be the reasoning of the Sadducees, who confined themselves to the five books of Moses, and disowned the prophets. They had closed their hearts against the perpetual evidence of their temple, and refused to believe in the interference of God, and His dealings with that economy under which they were living.1
Thank God that he does choose to “interfere” with our world. Considering that our entire deposit of Christian revelation has been accompanied by miracles and signs — the Lord’s reminder that he is with us and is truly behind this Christian movement of grace — why would we reach a point in the twenty-first century when we have, as a human family, decided that we no longer need such supernatural gifts and, moreover, throw our present skepticism back into history in order to deny all past supernatural interventions?
Since true miracles are intended by God to buttress Christian faith, and since our present age suffers from an extreme privation of faith in the forms of both ubiquitous secular humanism and increasing atheism, perhaps it’s time to give miracles another look.
This is precisely the outstanding opportunity provided by Michael O’Neill in this treasure chest of the legitimately supernatural. In this extraordinarily well-documented study, the author provides optimal historical, theological, medical, and scientific evidence wherever possible in defense and articulation of some of Christian history’s best occasions of God’s benevolent interference.
Certainly, the extreme and the fanatical can be present dangers whenever one claims some event to be of a heavenly cause. Yet to reject miracles outright is not only to throw out the baby with the bath water but, still more troubling, to imply that babies don’t exist at all. And if babies don’t exist, then what of parents? Yes, a categorical denial of the miraculous can lead to the conclusion of a godless universe.
If you were God and witnessed the present state of human affairs on a global scale, wouldn’t you try to help?
Michael O’Neill’s study of the supernatural contained in this outstanding text is, in its own right, a type of miracle. No, as the author would be quick, perhaps even frantic, to admit, he is not God and this book is not the result of a direct supernatural intervention. At the same time, this wonderful work points to heaven, calls us to look upward, and stresses the vertical axis of human existence between God and man as a refreshing remedy to the dominant horizontal axis, which has contemporary humanity almost exclusively turned in on itself.
May the purpose of true miracles be achieved in the heart of every reader: greater faith in Jesus, greater love for the Church, greater gratitude for the infinite interferences of God.
Dr. Mark Miravalle
Professor of Theology and Mariology
Franciscan University of Steubenville
May 13, 2015, Memorial of Our Lady of Fátima
Preface
One of my favorite miracle stories came from a woman at a summer barbecue I attended. Upon hearing about my work, she pulled me aside and said, “I have an amazing story about my son!” She went on to tell me that she had brought her young son to Mass, and at the Consecration he had raised his eyes to the ceiling and excitedly whispered, “Look, it’s the saints! Mom, I can see the saints!” The mother went home and excitedly called all her Catholic-mom friends to brag that her young son was a mystic in the making. During Mass the next Sunday, the woman could hardly concentrate on the liturgy as she kept a watchful eye on her child, in case he should see visions again. He sat quietly during the Mass until the Consecration, when he once again raised his arms and pointed upward excitedly. “Mom, the saints are on the ceiling!” The woman raised her eyes and looked hard, and, sure enough, she saw what the boy saw. Painted on the ceiling was a fleur-de-lis — which happens to be the logo of the NFL’s New Orleans Saints. Apparently the woman’s young mystic had been watching plenty of football with his father in addition to attending Mass with his mother.
Just what is a miracle anyway? Traditionally the term has meant a mysterious and prodigious fact, an event of divine intervention that cannot be explained scientifically. To the modern educated person, there may be little room for miracles. Such a person might argue that just because something cannot be explained with current knowledge, experience, or scientific investigation, it doesn’t mean that there couldn’t be an explanation … someday. We don’t know what we don’t know. Even St. Augustine said in his City of God (De Civitate Dei contra Paganos), “Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.” And certainly, some would assert, a lack of answers is hardly proof positive for divine intervention.
The most famous foundation for rejecting the possibility of miracles such as apparitions is the thought of prominent atheist David Hume, who circularly argued that miracles are impossible because miracles cannot happen.2