Memorial of Saint Theresa of Avila

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/101512.cfm

Behold the flowers of the marsh

But the Jerusalem above is freeborn, and she is our mother. 
For it is written: 
Rejoice, you barren one who bore no children; 
break forth and shout, you who were not in labor; 
for more numerous are the children of the deserted one 
than of her who has a husband. 
Therefore, brothers and sisters, 
we are children not of the slave woman 
but of the freeborn woman.

More than any other religion, Christianity relies on miracles as the foundation of our faith. Other religions have wonderful stories and amazing legends, and they draw useful lessons from them, but Christianity demands that we live everyday as if we expect miracles to happen. 
These miracles are both signs of God's authority in our world and unexpected, unpredictable blessings. 
Severely challenged by the rise of science with its foundations in the scientific method, we have often retreated from the challenge of faith. But even before we moderns of the last several centuries waffled, Saint Paul accused the Galatians of the same reluctance to believe, as we heard last Monday,

I am amazed that you are so quickly forsaking the one who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel (not that there is another).

I can think of three ways of regarding miracles:

1. The first is thoroughly inadequate: A miracle is an incident which is "stranger than science," or "something which science cannot explain." There are several problems with that. First, it sets up science as the standard for all things that are true. Science should not pretend to explain everything in the universe, and scientists who think it should are stepping way beyond their limits. That theory of determinism, that everything has a rational explanation and can be predicted in advance, has been discredited. 
2. Secondly, a miracle is a wonderful sign of God's authority. This explanation is good; it accepts the fact that science can explain many things but allows room for God's activity. So when a person takes medicines and recovers from a serious illness she can thank both God and the doctor. 
3. The third way of viewing miracles is more challenging, and I hear it in Saint Paul's challenge to the Galatians: 

The son of the slave woman was born naturally, 
the son of the freeborn through a promise.

Christian faith trusts in the protecting, guiding, providing presence of God who has promised he will always be there for us. We see that confidence first in Jesus who marched relentlessly, obediently toward Jerusalem and Calvary; then in Mary who remained at the foot of the cross despite all its horror and shocking disappointment; then in the lives of the saints -- especially the martyrs -- who would not deny Jesus despite their hopeless situations; and, finally, in that heroic cloud of witnesses around us who simply will not walk away from the Church. 

I heard a scientist,Dr. Larry Dossey speak about scientific demonstrations of prayer's efficacy. The science sounded fishy, at best; and I replied, "We don't need that stuff. We chaplains pray for and with our patients because we believe in God, not because we believe in prayer." He replied that some doctors might be friendlier toward our ministry if they saw proof of its power. I doubt it very much; nothing can convince a true skeptic, especially in matters of faith. 

What persuades us to believe in God? That's mysterious. Perhaps it's the freedom of which Saint Paul speaks in today's reading: 

For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm
and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.

Or perhaps it's the sheer joy of our freedom. We have heard of it in the amazing stories of our martyrs. They would not relent despite horrible tortures. Some volunteered for martyrdom, some demanded to be enlisted among those condemned to die, and some even challenged their tormentors to make their suffering worse. I think especially of the seventeenth century Japanese Martyrs and the  Ugandan Martyrs who died in 1886. 

Saint Francis of Assisi is known for that same joy although he was not martyred. He found both freedom and joy in his Christ-like Poverty. 

Christian faith recalls innumerable miracle stories of God's providence as we make our daily sacrifices. We often live on the edge, not knowing how we'll provide for ourselves given our scant resources and uncertain future. We're sometimes tempted to use illegal or unethical means to insure our future, but we refuse. "God will provide" we tell ourselves time and again; and He does.