One of my favorite comedians, Jim Gaffigan, has a segment where he makes a Jesus joke. He follows saying “wouldn’t it be great if I were electrocuted?” Then he does his usual impersonation of a person listening who finds his humor offensive and not funny, “He did a Jesus joke and he got electrocuted. It was the best show I’ve ever seen. And it helped my faith.”
I find this segment, well, for lack of better words, awesome! I’m thinking of miracles tonight because the Suns beat the Spurs tonight in Game 4 of their first round series. They were down 3-0 and no team has ever come back to win from that deficit. So they need a miracle but I hope they don’t get one because the Spurs are my team.
I always find it difficult to listen to people talk about this or that miracle that they witnessed or know of. Don’t get me wrong, I do believe in miracles, but like Jim Gaffigan points out, do you really need a miracle to help your faith? If you already believe in God, then why do you need a miracle? You don’t. I’ve asked God before for miracles, and I always end up thinking, how is that going to help me? I already know He is there. Miracles in the Bible are done to help peoples’ faith. Jesus doesn’t just cure all the sick and dying. All the people he healed eventually died, and probably got sick again too. But He does it to show them He is the Son of God. So a miracle isn’t going to help me do something any better. I still have to rely on God and after a time, even if you’ve seen a sure miracle, people are fickle and go back to the way they were and start doubting again anyways.
I know this is all pretty pessimistic. But I don’t see the need to place such importance on miracles. Great, you saw the Virgin Mary on a piece of toast. So are you going to stop charging lots of money as a lawyer or doctor and devote your time to those in most need? Are you going to stop that nasty habit that you’ve always been too lazy to get over? These are issues of will power. I do believe in miracles, but I get uncomfortable when people, especially Catholics grounded in their faith start talking about them, because I just think to myself, “Great, but what’s the need?”
