Miracles, wonders and signs

See also: Tables of Miracles in the Work of Maria Valtorta.

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

We hear the testimony of Peter on the day of Pentecost. Jesus is the one through whom God performed "miracles, wonders, and signs." These are the works of God (in Greek "erga") carried out by his Son to whom he is united to the point of being mutually in one another. It is these miraculous works that bear witness to this unity.

• Miracles (in Greek "dunameis") are "acts or manifestations of power". They are therefore observable facts.
• Signs (in Greek "semeion") are the meaning they carry in God's plan of Salvation. In the miracles reported by John, Jesus emphasizes this term.
• Wonders (in Greek "terata") illustrate their nature as inaccessible to ordinary human laws 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 come together in the works of God. Thus, when Jesus walks on the Water, he performs a staggering act (miracle), a prophetic symbolic sign of his victory over Evil. This uniqueness of the miracle is explained by Jesus himself during the episode of the Bread of Heaven which follows the second multiplication of the loaves. Jesus reproaches the crowd for following him not for the sign he has just given but for the wonder of the multiplication of the loaves. His interlocutors then ask him how to participate in the works of God, 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, carried out 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 into existence, and without him nothing that has been made came into being." The power of the miracle is constitutive of his divinity and if He performs them, it is to concretize, through signs, his Mission of Redemption to mankind.

Which associates man by faith

The miracle is accessible to the one "who believes in Jesus" and does so "in his name", animated by deep faith in his intercession. Man is thus participant in the works of God as proclaimed by the psalmist: "When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you fixed, what is man that you think of him, the son of man, that you care for him? You made him a little less than God, crowning him with glory and honor; you set him over the works of your hands, you put all things under his feet."

That is why man can, in return, praise his Creator: "I acknowledge before you the wonder, the astonishing being that I am: amazing are your works, my whole Soul knows it."

However, the power of God has only one limit: the free will of man 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 hoped so much that you would perform one at Capernaum... And You told us you did not perform a miracle without first fulfilling the Law. Why then, at Cana? Why there and not in your Homeland?" - "Every obedience to the Law is union with God and therefore an increase of our power. The miracle is proof of union with God, of the benevolent Presence of God and his agreement with us. That is why I wanted to fulfill my duty as an Israelite before beginning the series of wonders." - "But you were not obligated 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 also teach us to do miracles this year?", Jesus responds:  

"The miracle is not taught. It is not a game for showmen. The miracle comes from God, he obtains it who is in Grace with God. If you learn to be good, you will have Grace and obtain the miracle."

1.3 - The miracle always proves the Presence of God

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 brings him back home and heals him out of compassion for the suffering of his wife and his children. The mother of the wayward man 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 the Presence of God. That is why I could not perform it in the house of sin. You, at least, keep your house that way, even if he does not know it. Take care of him now. It is just that he suffers a little. Be good, Woman. And you. And you, little ones. AGod." Jesus returns later to comment more extensively on his attitude.

1.4 - One cannot confuse the wonder coming from God with that coming from the Demon.

Jesus has just freed a possessed man, but the Pharisees sow terror among the miraculously healed: Jesus freed him from a demon, but the one replacing him will be more terrible. The healed man, completely panicked, runs after Jesus to ask him to restore his original state. Jesus warns the crowd to beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees and warns: "everything they do in the dark will be known in the daylight". Then he reassures the healed man:

"There is a sure way to know if a wonder comes from God or from the demon. And it is what the Soul experiences. If the extraordinary event comes from God, it brings Peace into the Soul, Peace and joy full of majesty. If it comes from a demon, trouble and suffering come with this wonder. And it is also from the words of God that peace and joy come, whereas from those of a demon, whether a spirit demon or a human demon, come trouble and suffering. And it is also from the proximity of God that peace and joy come, whereas from the neighborhood of evil spirits or evil men come trouble and suffering."

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

2.1 - The misuse of the miracle leads to Pride

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

"The miracle, the flame from Heaven, is not to be made into a wicker circle to make oneself a crown... And one does not tempt God by asking for miracles for human ends. That is what Satan wanted. The proclaimed reason 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 at not having a boy and becomes hurtful and cruel. Jesus, invisibly, heals his Heart by evoking a son he will have. Later, the Apostles question Jesus about one of his remarks on the woman's relationship to prayer:

"Prayer is the conversation of the Heart with God and should be the habitual state of man. The woman, because of her more withdrawn life than ours and due to her affective faculties stronger than ours, is more inclined than we are to this conversation with God. In her, she finds comfort for her pain, relief for her exhaustion, which are not only those of household and childbirth but also those of bearing us men; she finds what wipes away the tears and brings a smile to the heart. Because 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, by their prayers, support the giants and even the world, for many misfortunes will be avoided thanks to their prayers and many punishments avoided. Hence, they will perform the miracle, invisible most of the time and known only to God, but no less real."

"You too, today, have done an invisible miracle yet real, haven't you, Master?" asks Thaddaeus. "Yes, brother."
"It would have been better to make it visible," observes Philip.      

"Did you want me to change the little girl into a boy? The miracle, in reality, is an alteration of fixed things, a beneficial disorder granted by God 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 order. The little girl was born a woman and remains a woman.  

2.3 - Faith precedes the miracle

At Gamla the inhabitants use veteran Romans as overseers of convicts whom they use for the construction of their ramparts. Whippings rain down on the backs of the The Hungry. Jesus intervenes with a surprised and upset guard. Inhabitants introduce Jesus: "He is the Rabbi of Galilee, the one who commands diseases, winds, Water and demons, changes stones into bread, and nothing resists Him."

"Perform a miracle and I will believe," challenges the overseer.  "You do not ask for miracles to To Believe, answers Jesus. You ask for faith to To Believe and thus obtain the miracle. Faith and compassion for the Neighbor.

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

Judas, increasingly rebellious, claims in front of the other Apostles, stunned, to have performed miracles on his own initiative. The Apostles express their concern to Jesus. An opportunity arises:

"Master," says Matthew, "the words of Elisha remind me of a question some asked us today on the way. They asked, since something extraordinary happened in a village, if the miracle is always proof of holiness. I told them yes, but they said no. Indeed, in this village, on the borders of Samaria, the one who did extraordinary things was certainly not a just man. I silenced them by saying man always judges badly and the one of whom they said he was unjust, perhaps was more just than they. What do you say?"

"I say you are all right, each from his side. You saying the miracle is always a proof of holiness: generally that is the case, and also saying one must not judge to avoid mistakes. But they were also right to suspect other sources for what man did extraordinarily."

"What sources?" asks the Iscariot.

"Dark sources. There are creatures already adorers of Satan, because they have the Worship of Pride, who in order to impose themselves on others sell themselves to the Dark One, to have him as a friend," answers Jesus.

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

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

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

"Not always and not all. But they have something."  

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

Jesus received well the call for help from the sisters of Lazarus who is dying. But he delays returning to Bethany, then suddenly decides. The Apostles want to stop him: it is a matter of life!

"Let me do good as long as I am free to do so. The time will come when I will not be able to move a finger or say a word to perform the miracle. The world will be empty of my power. An awful hour of punishment for man. Not for Me. For the man who will not have wanted to love me. An hour that will recur, by the will of the man who will have rejected Divinity until making himself godless, a disciple of Satan and his cursed son. An hour that will come when the end of this world is near. Non-faith become sovereign mistress will nullify my power for miracles. It’s not that I can lose it, but that miracles cannot be granted where there is no faith or desire to receive it, where miracles would be despised and used for evil, making the Good obtained into a tool to do greater evil. Now I can still perform the miracle, and do it to give glory to God."

2.6 - The two demands in asking for a miracle

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

"There are two forms of demand in asking for a miracle. To one God consents with love. To the other, He turns away with indignation. The first is one that asks, as I taught to ask-, without distrust and without discouragement, and does not think that God cannot hear because God is good, and the good one listens because God is powerful and can do all things. That is love and God listens to those who love. The other form is the demand of the rebellious who want God to be their servant and yield to their wickedness and give them what they themselves do not give God: love and obedience. This form is an offense that God punishes by refusing 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 evil, sometimes also, it is to shake them, to persuade 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, resorts to it also to be able to say: "I have done everything for you, and it was of no use. So tell me yourselves, what more must I do?"  

3.2 - The miracle benefits only those walking towards faith

Jesus saves from the deadly bite of a snake the grandson of Eli, a hostile Pharisee, who is grateful for the moment of emotion. Jesus acts like a doctor, which puzzles the Apostles.

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

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

"It doesn’t matter the venom. Rather notice that if I had acted as you wished, he would have said Beelzebub helped me. In his ruined soul, he can still admit my power as a doctor. Nothing more. The miracle brings to faith those who are already on that path. But among those who lack humility – faith always shows the presence of humility in a soul –, the miracle drives them to blasphemy. For this reason, it is better to avoid this risk by using seemingly human methods."     

3.3 - The miracle manifests the goodness of God

In Syro-Phœnicia a shepherd offers Jesus milk from his ewes. He is known by reputation. The shepherd asks him for a miracle on his sheep.

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

— You are the Nazarene, right? The one who performs miracles?  

— "I am the one who preaches eternal salvation. I am the Way to reach the true God, the Truth that gives itself, the Life that vivifies you. I am not a sorcerer who performs wonders. They are manifestations of my goodness and of your weakness, which needs proof to 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 Thaddeus asks: "Could you not do it for all now? I mean: for those who doubt, for the guilty, for the renegades. Perhaps a miracle..."

"No, brother. The miracle does much Good, especially this kind, 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. The gift of God, they take it as a weakness of God who begs them, the proud, to allow Him to love them. The gift of God, they take it 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 to those who take this Satanic path. The gift of God turns into Satan's poison in them. It is the greatest and surest test of the degree of elevation and holy will in a man, to be granted extraordinary gifts. Very often man becomes drunken humanly, and from spiritual he becomes wholly human, and then he falls and becomes demonic."

3.5. - The miracle is power of the Creator God which meets the free will of man

In Syro-Phœnicia, Jesus is approached by a weeping woman from Sidon. Her eldest son is blind: under the eyelids, there is nothing. In silent prayer, thumbs on the two eye sockets of the child, Jesus prays to his Father. "See! I want it! And praise the Lord!" In the empty sockets, there are now two beautiful 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 breaks into tears: her husband treats her as a repudiated woman because she has had only daughters and one blind boy before becoming sterile. Her last hope was in Jesus.

"Go! Tell Daniel, your husband, that He who created the worlds has given two bright stars for pupils to the little one consecrated 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 them even more. Believe this and believe it all. The woman who came from Sidon to find me, with two swords plunged in the secret of her heart, dared to tell me the name of only one. It is more painful to reveal certain intimate sufferings than to say: "I am sick." But I also give her the second miracle. To the world, it will have seemed and will always seem easier to restore harmony between two spouses separated by a reason now overcome — and fortunately so — than to give two pupils to two eyes born without them. But no, it is not so. For He who is the Lord and the Creator, making two pupils is as simple as restoring life breath to a corpse. The Master of Life and Death, the Master of all that exists in Creation, surely does not lack vital breath to infuse life anew to the dead and two drops of humoral liquid for a dried-out eye. He only has to will it to have power. For it depends solely on his will. But when it comes to harmony between men, it requires the "will" of men united with God's desire."

4. The miracle is light for darkened eyes

4.1 - There are saints who do not perform miracles and magicians who perform wonders

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

"Then let him explain, this one (Jesus), why Aaron did not perform miracles and Moses did," loudly shouts Felix.

Jesus responds without delay:

"Moses had to impose himself on the heavy, little enlightened, even opposing 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 all that is out of the ordinary. The miracle is that: a light shaken before darkened pupils, it is a noise near blocked ears. It awakens. It calls attention. It makes one say: “God is here.”

"You say that to your advantage," replies Felix.

"To 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 employ dark forces to perform, that is to say they do superhuman things but that are not holy, and they are, themselves, demons. I myself would be, even if I no longer perform miracles."

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

Jesus took with him James the Less, one of the pillars of the future Church and first bishop of Jerusalem. He communicated to him 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 that man if he does not see does not believe. He always needs something to tell him there is something. For this reason, when I perform miracles, I lay on hands, or rub with saliva, or give a bite of soaked bread. I could perform a miracle by my mere thought. But do you think then people would say: “God did the miracle”? They would say: “He is healed because it was time to heal.” And they would attribute the credit to the doctor, to remedies, to the physical resistance of the patient. It will be the same for the Sacraments: forms of Worship to administer Grace, or return it, or strengthen it in the faithful. John, for example, used immersion in Water to represent the Purification from sins. In reality, more than the water which washed the limbs, it was the mortification of recognizing oneself impure for the sins committed that was helpful."

Miracles performed by Jesus

Specificity of Maria Valtorta's writings

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

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

Not all miracles are described in the Gospel

To preemptively respond to objections raised by Maria Valtorta’s narrative of new facts, Jesus refers those he calls "the doctors of quibbling" 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 choir of nitpicking doctors saying: "But this fact is not mentioned in the Gospels. How can she say: ‘I saw this?’" To them I reply with the words of the Gospels.

"And Jesus was going through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and healing every disease and sickness” says Matthew.      

And also: “Go and report to John what you see and hear: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news preached to them.”-  

And also: "Woe to you, Chorazin, woe to you, Bethsaida, for if the miracles done among you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes... And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to hell: for if the miracles done in you had been done in Sodom, it might still be standing."   

And Mark: "...and great crowds followed him from Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and beyond the Jordan. Even from the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon they came to him, having heard about the things he did..."        

And Luke: "Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching and proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God, and with him were the twelve and some women who had been healed from evil spirits and infirmities."        

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

And since John was present at all the wonders, whatever their nature, which I performed in three years, the Beloved gives me unlimited testimony: "It is this same disciple who saw these things and wrote them. We know that his testimony is true. There are also other things done by Jesus. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written."   

"So? What do the nitpicking 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 kingdom).

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

• The second demonstrates his power over demons, these are exorcisms.

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

• The third demonstrates his power over death, these are resurrections.

There are 4 (including that of the Lord) reported both in the Gospel and Maria Valtorta.

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

There are 20 reported in the Gospel and 113 in Maria Valtorta. This category must be supplemented by the power of God over hearts. Simply implied in the Gospel, there are 8 explicit ones in Maria Valtorta.

This typology is detailed in a dedicated 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 sometimes a slightly summarized compilation, made by Mario Canciani (at the very bottom of the page of all downloadable booklets)

Analysis of the historical, cultural, and literary context of Biblical texts to better understand what they meant at the time they were written and how they can be interpreted today.

In-depth research on God, faith, religious Doctrine.

The Gospel as it was revealed to me (Maria Valtorta).