MIRACLES IN SEARCH OF ‘MIRACLES’

By Kasise Ricky Peprah * A people hurried have no eyes for the morning dew and no ears for the sweet chirping of the birds * A miracle is no less a miracle because it happens every day or every minute. * You, look no further, fret no more, stop your yearning, for what you search is you. Stop, and listen, to your heartbeat, the longest continuing miracle. Dear St. Jude, Of our many weaknesses as humans and Catholics, our lack of faith and impatience rank near the top. If by this characterisation I err, please pray for my pardon for I merely seek to demonstrate the pervasiveness of these two challenges. I daresay too that these two form the foundation of our pilgrimage here on Earth. St. Jude, it is also allowable to conceive of these two as one or as two sides of one problem, I think. Our lack of faith may well manifest itself in our frantic impatience or that our impatience leads us into a frenzied hurry and thus, we are unable to see the Hand of God in our daily lives. Today, I have good news to report, good news from us your people, news that we are appreciative after all, of the wonders of our Creator. Indeed the world has been caught up in a prolonged fit of delusional self-sufficiency which has resulted in a dereliction of duty to God, at best, or an absolute denial of Him, at worst. Those that remain on the track are daily asking God for proof of His existence. It is little doubt therefore that some enterprising people have constituted themselves into purveyors of miracles, as proof of God’s presence and Omnipotence. Conventional wisdom provides that it makes sense, even economic sense if one, in response to a crying wish of another, provides a phantom for the satisfaction of that demand. This, to me, is what has accounted for the glut of prophets and prophecies, ‘men’ and ‘women’ of God and their pseudo acts of God. It is simply a matter of demand and supply. St. Jude, at the foundation of all this lie our lack of faith and our impatience and pardon me to add, our lack of discernment. But I digress. Lately, I keep running into people who have read my letters to you and we invariably end up in a religio-philosophical discussion of one sort or another. I make sure to confess my lack of knowledge in matters of dogma and theology so we often branch into ‘unlettered’ exchanges of views. What has increasingly brought me a smile is the fact that a handsome number of us do not yearn for bombastic miracles and furthermore, that we are able to see the uncountable miracles that are our lives and the everyday things we take for granted. Some of us are now slowing down ‘to smell the flowers’, wisening-up to the fact that our every waking is a miracle and seeing in the banal things and happenings, the real miracles they are. St. Jude, permit me to relate to you a very crude yet poignant anecdote; ‘if you think your alarm woke you up this morning, take the same alarm to the mortuary tonight and see how many people will wake up tomorrow morning’. This coarse admonition explains the fact of God’s Hand in our lives, methinks. St. Jude, thankfully, many of us now realise that what we called luck is after all an act of God, that coincidence is not chance but divine design, that opportunity is not accident but the wish of God and that effort and striving are nought without God’s blessing. We know now, that when we leave home in the assurance that we will return and indeed do so, it is God’s doing. Many there are, who have become complacent, unappreciative, even unbelieving in the matter of God’s unending hand in our lives and have sought out ‘miracle-working churches and pastors. How simple! Many have forgotten or have become unappreciative of the essence of prayer, quiet, meditative prayer and opted for raucous ranting amidst a din so loud that even a resilient Holy spirit will tire.(Excuse my denigration of the Holy Spirit, I do it for effect). Today’s readings avert our minds to the processes of sowing a seed and how it germinates and then grows and matures and only then can it be harvested. It teaches us process and patience and faith. Process because one must first sow, then nurture before they harvest. Patience because once you have sown, you cannot hurry the plant along, it grows in its own time. Faith because when we sow we have no guarantee that it will germinate and if it does, no assurance that it will grow, and when it does, no certainty that it will mature. The readings also highlight the mustard seed and from it we can draw two lessons, at least. From its very small size it grows into a big plant on which birds can nestle. We see from this that Our Father requires of us just small faith and out of this he will make us flourish. We are to take note that ‘our branches should nestle birds’. My understanding is that we should share our good fortune and stretch out a hand to the needy. The other lesson I allude to is that of God’s omnipotence. He can make a large plant out of even a mustard seed. We do not have to be big or substantial, we only have to be willing and he will make of us something far incomparable to our beginnings. St. Jude, today we humans are in a haste to achieve grandeur, pray for us to know that God has a unique plan for us all. We are burdened with unbelief, ever craving for flamboyant miracles while we ignore the very miracle of ourselves, pray for us so that we abandon our vain quest and be grateful for our lives, our families, the peace we enjoy, the air we breathe and the sun and the moon and everything we have been blessed with here on Earth. Let us begin to say ‘thank you Father’ instead of ‘show me Father that you are’.