ASKING FOR MIRACLES

ASKING FOR MIRACLES 

When Asking for Miracles Betrays Smugness and Pride

Asking for miracles in order to believe betrays a sort of smugness on our part, sort of like asking for an expensive gift from a prospective friend before considering their overture for friendship. It could hardly become a true friendship if it had a beginning like that. 

God could easily create miracles that would make all people believers, but He respects our free will, and does not wish to interfere with our freedom. As God awaits our decision, are we to respond to His love, or are we not. God has the power to show forth miracles that would make us all believers, but to do so would hardly leave us with freedom, for He desires that we choose to commune with Him, not because of His power, but because of His love.

When I was a young man, in about the eighth grade, I decided that the Roman Catholic Church might possibly be the True Church. I started taking catechetical lessons from the local Roman Catholic priest. Struggling, as I was, to find the True Church, I asked my Lutheran pastor to meet together with the Catholic priest and me, so that I could have them debate. My plan was to choose the winner, and go with that church. 

The Pastor declined, saying he wasn't going to reduce truth to whomever could win a debate challenge. I'd just joined the high school debate team, and had thought it a good idea to have them debate, thus taking the pressure off myself, making my decision easier. That was a real example of copping out, and relieving myself of having to make the decision.

This is not unlike the person who would demand a miracle, asking God to prove Himself worthy of being worshiped. This would be no different than saying, "give me a car for my birthday, dad, and I'll consider loving you as my father". We must approach God in all humbleness of mind and heart, leaving the rest up to Him.

It is also quite possible that when miracles do come our way, our smugness and pride prevent us from seeing the miracle that is right in front of us. I once asked a young Egyptian Christian about the appearance of the Holy Virgin before crowds of people on the dome of Saint Mary Coptic Orthodox Church in Cairo. Everyone, whether they were Christians, Muslims, Jews, or atheists, were able to witness the appearance, and I wondered why such miracles happened in Egypt, but not in the West. The young man said that Christians in the Middle East live their lives in expectation of miracles, so when they come they are not surprised, but received with joy. Westerners, he said, in their collective pride, are skeptics, and ignore miracles sent by God.

If we are awaiting the day God will prove Himself to us, we fail to notice that He has been doing just that from the very beginning, but our smugness and pride have blinded us to that which has always been there.

Love in Christ,

Abbot Tryphon