Isaias had foretold the many miracles of the Messias (Isa. xxxv. 4-6); and Our Lord recalled this when the disciples of St. John came to ask who He was (Luke vii. 22). This was the crucial and necessary proof of His divine mission. The words of Our Lord were effectual on believers or those who were ready to believe; the miracles were chiefly "a sign not to believers but to unbelievers" (1 Cor. xiv. 22). So it was that Jesus said to the Jews: "I speak to you and you believe not; the works that I do in the name of My Father, they give testimony of Me . . . though you will not believe me, believe the works" (John x. 25, 38). Miracles were necessarily a distinctive feature of Our Lord's life. Nature, otherwise immutable, was plastic in His hands; for all power was given to Him in heaven and on earth. There were wondrous signs in the heavens at His birth and death. He multiplied the loaves, changed water into wine, calmed the storm, walked on the waves, cured all diseases instantaneously, raised the dead to life. Finally Christ gave the same power to His Church. "Amen, I say to you, he that believeth in Me, the works that I do he shall also do, and greater than these shall he do" (John xiv. 12). Thank Our Lord for this communication of His powers. False systems may copy the Church's rites, and usurp her name, and even show some of her results, but this is an inalienable prerogative which they cannot appropriate and dare not counterfeit.
