Month: July 2026

Miracles or Magic?

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Perhaps, sometime in your life, you have wanted something wonderful to happen, for yourself, or for someone you cared deeply about. Maybe you asked God for a sign of divine power and personal care to intervene in a particular difficult (seemingly impossible?) situation. A key question is: “Am I trusting God, or do I want this, no matter how it comes about?

Yes, there are unseen and mostly unknown forces and powers at work all around us, but magic is generally a matter of illusion. Magic relies on secret formulas spoken, specific gestures or actions to be performed correctly. Magic pretends to bypass nature or to manipulate the divine order in order to accomplish its results.

Miracles are based on the reality that God, who desires wholeness and wellbeing for all is, by choice, embedded in all that is. But God does not, and will not, violate the laws of nature or overpower our free will – no matter how much, at times, we wish God would. 

Miracles do occur – all the time. Do we have eyes to see and to recognize them? Life is a miracle. Love is a miracle. But these, and any other miracles, don’t materialize on our terms. We tend to want results here and now. God operates on another plane that is not bound by our sense of time and space. Good happens we know not how. And God has the ability to bring about unexpected blessing out of the worst disaster (e.g. Jesus crucified).

When Jesus, in the gospels, performed amazing signs and wonders, he served as an instrument, a channel between the suffering person and God. He was clear that it wasn’t about him (no ego). When people were convinced by Jesus’ presence, goodness and love that they (or those they were interceding for) were precious, beloved of God, their faith allowed divine power to flow to and through them. It was pure gift, not earned, deserved, merited.

It’s not our prayers, no matter how many or how heartfelt, it’s not our sacrifices, it’s not our vows or promises to God that move God to act. (Hopefully these things move us to become more open, trusting, loving). It’s our attuning our desires to God’s desires that makes the biggest difference. It’s our coming to believe that God is with us and within us no matter if circumstances change or not. Maybe that’s a miracle too?

God is Absolutely Just, But Not Fair

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We human beings have a bad habit of trying to figure out God. Most often, we use our own reality and experiences as the basis for the images of God we create. No wonder the first of the Ten Commandments states, “I am the One Alone Who Is your God, you shall have no other gods besides me.” and “You shall not make yourself any image or likeness of anything in the heavens, on earth or in the waters. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.” In other words, only God is our ultimate concern, only God is the reference point for our lives. No other person or thing, real or imagined, deserves our focus and fidelity the way God does.

So, where do we get our sense of who/what God is? The most helpful resources are: God’s own revelation in creation, in the person, life, and work of Jesus, in the witness of the community of people whose shared faith is open, alive and well, in Scripture, and in our own personal experience and relationship with God. Still, it’s easy to get God wrong.

One attribute we assign to God is justice. God is just. But what do we mean by this? We tend to equate the justice of God with our own sense of right, of law, of fairness. We think good is supposed to be rewarded. Evil is supposed to be punished. That’s right and fair, isn’t it? If an action is against the law, whether civil law or God’s Law, the person who commits that action is wrong and liable to some penalty – temporal or eternal.

Jesus was clear that sinful actions and behaviors were destructive, both to individuals and to communities. “Don’t commit this sin again.” But he also taught that we, from our limited and self-centered perspectives, do not have the vision or capacity to judge anyone, not even ourselves. We cannot assign anyone to eternal reward or eternal punishment. “Don’t judge, and you will not be judged.” God’s all-encompassing knowledge of us: our personality, our gifts, our weaknesses, our whole history, our struggles, all of our experiences, etc, these become the basis for God’s judgment. 

God knows us better than we know ourselves. It’s this knowing that forms the basis of God’s tendency to look on each one of us with mercy. First of all, God is crazy in love with us. Secondly, God is with us in every moment, realizing the challenges we face and the efforts we make. God certainly is aware that we are wounded, broken people generally doing the best we can in the face of misunderstandings, pressures, fears – too frequently little and lost. Yes, we make mistakes, but our mistakes do not define us.

Fr. Tom Curran, S.J. likes to say, “God’s justice is God’s mercy.” God is both merciful and just, providing sun and rain to just and unjust, to those who do evil and to those who do good (Matthew 5:44-45). The perfection of God, which we are called to emulate, is compassion. God is just, but according to our sense of rightness, God is not fair. Thanks be to God! 

When “too much” Becomes TOO MUCH

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Certainly, we’ve all known loss. We all have grieved. Death is no stranger to us. I’m not a counselor, nor am I an expert on grief work. But I can’t stay in the background – silently observing – though that’s a favorite place of mine. Something inside me wants to scream, to cry out now, “Why?” I don’t have any answers, and of course, this is the wrong question.

Within the past three months I personally know of six people who have died: friends, adult children of friends, a cousin, friends of friends… Four of these felt that life, as it seemed to them, hurt too much to keep on living. They took their lives, directly or indirectly.  We can’t know all that they were trying to carry, trying to live up to, trying just so hard, and in their mind – alone.

What messages did they absorb from early on from our society about being the best, being super strong, appearing to have it all together? All very good people doing what they could – alone (even if they were surrounded by others who cared). Life, as they perceived it, became overwhelming, and they were unable, truly un-able, to reach out for the lifelines floating not too far away. Did they not believe, in some deep inner place, that anyone truly loved or cared about them – despite experience to the contrary? Or did they not believe that they were worthy of that love, that they, imperfect as they were, didn’t deserve to be loved? A whisper within,”I’m not okay as I am?” What secrets ruled their inner lives? 

It’s too easy to live virtually, tangentially connected, sharing activities and experiences, without the intimacy that friendship requires, the vulnerability that, over time, builds community. There is no substitute for real, sometimes raw, relationships. There is no physical or spiritual practice that can bypass our human need for the bonds of love. But love is tough. It demands mature people willing to do and risk whatever it takes to make it work. Fr. Pat, our former pastor, clearly urged us, “Don’t carry any burden alone!” Reach out. Please. We need each other.

Faith can help. Believing that there is a good, creative, loving Being behind and within all reality, if we take this to its logical conclusion, means that, beyond any doubt, each and every one is good, loved, cherished and held carefully. And this loving, cherishing and holding doesn’t end when our time here finishes – however it finishes. The big sadness is that some people aren’t able to accept or receive this love until they are fully embraced by it after death. Finally they can stop trying so hard and rest.