199. Apparent miracles
199. APPARENT MIRACLES
Are there apparent miracles that are not real? Can evil men work apparent miracles? Can they work real miracles?
The Apostle says (1 Cor. 13:2): If I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. Now whosoever has not charity is wicked. . . . Therefore it would seem that even the wicked can work miracles.
I answer that Some miracles are not true but imaginary deeds, because they delude man by the appearance of that which is not; while others are true deeds yet they have not the character of a true miracle because they are done by the power of some natural cause. . . .
True miracles cannot be wrought save by the power of God. . . .
God works them for man’s benefit, and this in two ways: in one way for the confirmation of the truth declared, in another way in proof of a person’s holiness, which God desires to propose as an example of virtue (II-II,178,2).
The answer to the first two questions is yes. The answer to the third question is no.
The cause of a miracle, properly speaking, is not just preternatural (above the normal powers of nature alone) but supernatural and divine.
St. Thomas does not explicitly mention here what demons can do, but elsewhere he says that they can sometimes, by God’s permission, perform preternatural deeds, as did the magicians of Pharaoh in response to Moses and Aaron.
However, the powers of Hell are never equal to the powers of Heaven; our imagination is deceived by picturing angels and demons as equal and opposite forces.
St. Thomas here speaks of two kinds of apparent but not real miracles: those that do not really happen at all, but only seem to happen (e.g., hallucinations or tricks), and those that really hap—pen but do not really have a supernatural cause, as they seem to, but some natural cause. These may be either deliberately deceptive, like the words or deeds performed at séances, or simply events that are wrongly attributed to supernatural causes, as comets were to a superstitious age.
Three things distinguish true miracles from apparent miracles. (1) They are done by God, and therefore for man’s good. (2) This good may be man’s knowledge of the truth (e.g., Eucharistic miracles that show to the senses the true Body and Blood of Christ). (3) Or it may be confirmation of personal holiness (e.g., the miracles wrought by the intercession of holy persons who have died and are to be canonized as saints).
Discerning true miracles can be tricky—for instance, apparitions and private visions. One principle that is very helpful here, as everywhere, is that “you will know them by their fruits” (Mt 7:16). Another is that God has provided us with a Church to investigate and evaluate these things authoritatively. No private revelations, even to canonized saints, are infallible.