We sometime ask God for a miracle in our lives don’t week, something we think is improbable or impossible in the whole scheme of things, in the reality of our world. I think that is why St Jude and St Rita are so popular in the Catholic faith - they are saints that pray with us when we want a miracle, when we want something that seems impossible to us. There are many miracle stories in the Gospels. Jesus used miracles as signs of God’s kingdom, to draw the people into his teachings and his ministry, to teach them about God.
Scripture scholars say we will find 10 different miracles performed by Jesus in chapters 8 and 9 of Matthew’s Gospel. What are we to make of those miracle stories, particularly of the one we hear today, of the way Jesus drove out a demon from a man who was made mute? Are there logical explanations for these miracles? We can debate that topic for hours and still not reach a conclusion. Many times, the crowds did not know what to make of the miracles that they saw Jesus perform. They said: “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.” Pharisees respond often respond by attacking Jesus. In today’s story, the Pharisees say that it is by the Prince of Darkness that Jesus is able to drive out those demons.
Perhaps there are miracles happening in our own life that we don’t recognize or that don't make sense to us. Through his miracles, Jesus let the blind see, the deaf hear, and the mute speak. He gave food to the hungry. But it goes beyond that. Jesus removes the blindness and the deafness and the close-mindedness that we harbor in our hearts. He allows us to go beyond the demons and the barriers that hold us back. Perhaps those are the little miracles that are happening in our lives that we are unable to recognize. But, perhaps those miracles are not so little after all.
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