Article 9 — Whether the working of a miracle should be attributed to faith

The ninth point of inquiry is whether the working of a miracle should be attributed to faith. (Parallel texts: ST II-II.178.1, resp., ad 5; I-II.111.4; SCG III.154; In I Sent. 48.1.2, ad 3. See above: q. 6, a. 4.)

Obj. 1: And it seems that it should not. For the gratuitously given graces differ from the virtues in that the virtues are common to all holy persons whereas the gratuitous graces are divided among various persons, according to 1 Corinthians 12:4: there are diversities of graces. Now, the working of miracles belongs to a gratuitous grace; therefore, it is said: to another the working of miracles (1 Cor 12:10). Therefore, the working of miracles should not be ascribed to faith.

Obj. 2: It will be replied that it is ascribed to faith as to what merits it, and to gratuitous grace as what executes it.

On the contrary, on Matthew 7:22—Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?—a Gloss says: sometimes prophecy, the working of miracles, and the casting out of devils is not due to the merit of the worker but to the invocation of Christ’s name. (Glossa interlinearis, at Matthew 7:22 (in Glossa ordinaria 5, 152).) Therefore, it seems that it should not be ascribed to faith.

Obj. 3: Charity is the principle and root of merit, and without it a formless faith is incapable of merit. Hence, if the working of miracles is ascribed to faith by reason of merit, it should be ascribed still more to charity.

Obj. 4: Since holy men work miracles by praying, the working of miracles should be ascribed chiefly to that power that causes prayers to be heard, and this is charity. Thus, it is said: if two of you shall consent upon earth concerning anything whatsoever, they shall ask it shall be done to them by my Father who is in heaven (Matt 18:19), and delight in the Lord and he will give you the requests of your heart (Ps 36:4). For it is charity that makes man delight in God through one’s love of God, and be in harmony with his fellow men through his love of neighbor. Therefore, the working of miracles should be attributed to charity.

Obj. 5: It is said: we know that God does not hear sinners (John 9:31). Now, charity alone removes sins, for as it is written, Charity covers all sins (Prov 10:12). Therefore, the working of miracles should be attributed to charity and not to faith.

Obj. 6: Holy men not only ask for miracles to occur by their prayer but they even perform the miracles from their own authority, as Gregory says. (Gregory the Great, Dialogues 2.30 (PL 66:188).) But this is due to a man’s union with God, such that the divine power comes to his aid. Now, charity causes this union, for he who is joined to the Lord, that is, by charity, is one spirit (1 Cor 6:17). Therefore, the working of miracles ought to be ascribed to charity.

Obj. 7: Envy is especially opposed to charity, since charity rejoices in the good things for which envy grieves. Now, according to a Gloss on Galatians 3:1, envy by bewitching men produces an evil effect in them. (Glossa ordinaria 6, 485–86, at Galatians 3:1 (PL 114:574–75).) Therefore, the working of miracles should be attributed to charity.

Obj. 8: The intellect is not a principle of action except through the medium of the will. Now, faith is in the intellect and charity is in the will. Therefore, neither does faith work save through charity: faith that works by charity (Gal 5:6). Therefore, just as virtuous deeds are ascribed to charity rather than to faith, so also is the working of miracles.

Obj. 9: All other miracles are directed to the Incarnation of Christ, which is the miracle of miracles. Now, the Incarnation of Christ is ascribed to charity: God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son (John 3:16). Therefore, also the other miracles should be ascribed not to faith but to charity.

Obj. 10: It was a miracle that Sarah, old and barren, bore a son to an old man, and this is ascribed to hope: who against hope believed in hope (Rom 4:18). Therefore, the working of miracles should be ascribed to hope and not to faith.

Obj. 11: A miracle is something difficult and unusual, as Augustine says. (Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of John 8 (PL 35:1450–58); Augustine, On the Trinity 3.5 (PL 42:874).) Now, difficult things are the object of hope. Therefore, the working of miracles should be attributed to hope.

Obj. 12: A miracle manifests the divine power. Now, just as charity corresponds to goodness, which is appropriated to the Holy Spirit, and as faith corresponds to truth, which is appropriated to the Son, even so, hope corresponds to authority, which is appropriated to the Father. Therefore, the working of miracles should be ascribed to hope.

Obj. 13: Augustine says that wicked men sometimes work miracles by outward signs of righteousness. (Augustine, Eighty-Three Different Questions, q. 79, para. 4 (PL 40:92).) Therefore, the working of miracles should be attributed to righteousness and not to faith.

Obj. 14: It is stated that Stephen, full of grace and fortitude, did great wonders and signs among the people (Acts 6:8). Therefore, it seems that this should be ascribed to fortitude.

Obj. 15: Our Lord said to his disciples, when they were unable to heal a demoniac, this kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting (Matt 17:20). Now, the casting out of demons is counted among the miracles, whereas fasting is an act of the virtue of abstinence. Therefore, the working of miracles belongs to abstinence.

Obj. 16: Bernard says that to be constantly with women without falling is greater than to raise the dead. (Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon on the Song of Songs 65.4.) Now, that belongs to chastity. Therefore, it belongs to chastity to work miracles and not to faith.

Obj. 17: That which is derogatory to faith should not be ascribed to faith. Now, miracles are derogatory to faith since unbelievers ascribe them to the magic acts. Therefore, miracles should not be set down to faith.

Obj. 18: The faith of Peter and Andrew is commended by Gregory because they believed without seeing miracles. (Gregory the Great, On the Gospels, bk. 1, Homily 5 (PL 76:1093–95).) Therefore, miracles are derogatory to faith, and the same conclusion follows as before.

Obj. 19: Given the cause, the effect follows. If, then, faith be the cause of miracles being wrought, all who believe would work miracles, and this is clearly false. Therefore, it does not belong to faith to work miracles.

On the contrary (1) it is said: these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name they shall cast out devils (Mark 16:17), etc.

Furthermore (2), our Lord said: if you have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, you shall say to this mountain: ‘remove from hence hither, and it shall remove: and nothing shall be impossible to you’ (Matt 17:19).

Furthermore (3), if one opposite is the cause of another opposite, the opposite of the first is the cause of the opposite of the second. Now, unbelief is a cause that hinders the working of miracles; thus, it is said of Christ: he could not do any miracles there; only that he cured a few that were sick, laying his hands upon them, and he wondered because of their unbelief (Mark 6:5), and it is related that, when the disciples asked our Lord: why could not we cast him out? Because of your unbelief, said he (Matt 17:18). Therefore, faith is the cause of the working of miracles.

I answer that holy men work miracles in two ways, according to Gregory in Dialogues 2: namely, by prayer begging that miracles be divinely worked, and by authority. (Gregory the Great, Dialogues 2.30 (PL 66:188).) Now, in both ways, faith renders a man fit to work miracles. For faith makes a man deserve that a miracle be wrought in answer to his prayer, and this is clear for the following reason. For it is to be observed that, whereas in natural things all particular causes derive the effectiveness of their action from the universal cause, nonetheless a determinate and proper effect is ascribed to a particular cause. This is clear in the active powers of the lower bodies in relation to the power of the heavenly body, and in the lower orders which, while following the movement of the first sphere, have each one their proper movements; and it is the same with the virtues whereby we merit. For they all derive their efficacy in meriting from charity, which unites us to God from whom we merit, and perfects our will through which we merit, and yet each virtue merits a certain particular reward proportionately corresponding to it; thus, humility merits exaltation, and poverty merits the kingdom.

Hence, sometimes when a man has lost charity, although he merits nothing according to condignity by the acts of his other virtues, yet through the divine liberality he may be repaid for these acts by certain fitting benefits, at least in this life. Therefore, it is said that a man may sometimes merit according to congruity an increase of temporal goods by deeds that are good from their genus but done without charity.

In this way, then, faith merits the working of miracles, although the root of the merit is charity. Three reasons may be given for this.

The first is that miracles are arguments for the faith, inasmuch as when things that exceed nature are done, it provides a proof of the truth about those things that surpass natural reason; hence, it is said: they going forth preached everywhere: the Lord working withal, and confirming the word with signs that followed (Mark 16:20).

The second reason is that faith is based fundamentally on the divine power, which it receives as the reason or medium of its assent to these things that are seen to be above reason; therefore, the divine power in miraculous works comes especially to the assistance of faith.

The third reason is because miracles occur independently of natural causes, and faith takes its arguments not from reasons pertaining to nature and the senses, but from things pertaining to God.

Hence, just as poverty in worldly goods merits spiritual riches, and humility merits heavenly exaltation, so too faith, through (as it were) despising things that occur naturally, in a way merits the working of miracles, which occur outside one’s natural power.

In like manner, faith makes a man most disposed to work a miracle by authority. Three reasons will make this clear.

First, because (as already stated) holy men are said to work miracles by authority, not as though they were the principal authors of miracles, but because as divine instruments they in a way make present to the natural things themselves the divine command, which nature obeys when miracles are wrought. (Q. 6, a. 4.) Now, it is by faith that God’s words dwell in us because faith is a certain participation in God’s truth; therefore, faith itself disposes a man to the working of miracles.

Second, because holy men who work miracles from authority work by the power of God acting in nature. For God’s action is compared to the whole of nature as the soul’s action to the body; however, the body is altered by the soul outside the order of its natural principles, especially through a persistent imagination whereby it warms the body through a desire or anger, or is even constitutionally changed so as to become feverish or leprous. Accordingly, a man will be disposed to the working of miracles by that which gives a certain persistence and stability to his apprehension. And a firm faith does this; and therefore, firmness of faith especially conduces to the working of miracles. This is made evident where it is said: if you shall have faith and stagger not, not only this of the fig-tree shall you do, but also if you shall say to this mountain, Take up and cast yourself into the sea, it shall be done (Matt 21:21); and, let him ask in faith, nothing wavering (Jas 1:6).

Third, because when miracles done from authority occur by way of a certain command, and therefore, a man is especially fit to work miracles from authority by what renders him suited for command. And this is a certain reservation and withdrawal from those whom one must command. Thus too, Anaxagoras says that the intellect is not mixed with the body, so that it may command it. Now, faith withdraws the mind from natural and sensible realities, and it sets it on the foundation of intelligible realities. Consequently, faith renders a man fit to work miracles through authority.

For this reason, those virtues are most conducive to the working of miracles which withdraw a man’s mind from those things which are most bodily; for example, continence and abstinence withdraw one from the choices whereby a man is immersed in sensible things. But other virtues that order a man toward the administration of temporal matters do not so dispose him to the working of miracles.

Reply Obj. 1: The working of miracles is ascribed to gratuitous grace as its proximate principle and to faith as a disposition to the gratuitous grace.

Reply Obj. 2: Though sometimes a sinner works a miracle, this is not due to his merit—that is, not to his merit according to worth—but to a certain fittingness, inasmuch as he holds constantly to the faith, in witness whereof, God works the miracle.

Reply Obj. 3: Charity, through being a greater virtue than faith, bestows on faith itself its very efficacy in merit; yet faith more suitably merits in a particular way the working of miracles. For faith is a perfection of the intellect, whose act consists in the reality understood being in some way within the intellect, while charity is a perfection of the will, whose act consists in its tending to the reality itself. Therefore, by charity a man abides in God and becomes one with him, whereas by faith divine things themselves abide in us, for which reason it is said that faith is the substance of things to be hoped for (Heb 11:1). Moreover, miracles are wrought in confirmation of faith and not of charity.

Reply Obj. 4: As stated, charity merits the granting of prayers as the universal principle of merit, but faith merits in a special way the working of miracles, as we have said above. (Q. 6, a. 9, ad 3.)

Reply Obj. 5: According to a Gloss on this passage, these are the words of the blind man, (Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of John 44.13 (PL 35:1718); Glossa ordinaria 5, 1179, at John 9:31 (PL 114:395).) who had not yet fully received the sight of wisdom; therefore, they contain an untruth. God does at times hear sinners, but this is owing to his liberality and not to their merits. And thus, their prayer petitions but is not meritorious, even as sometimes the prayer of a just man merits but does not petition, for petition regards its object and relies wholly on grace, while merit regards the end that someone merits and relies wholly on justice.

Reply Obj. 6: As we have already said, (Q. 6, a. 9, ad 3.) charity unites a man to God as drawing him to God, but faith draws divine things to us.

Reply Obj. 7: Envy could not have an evil effect by bewitching men unless a fixed imagination cooperated with that effect.

Reply Obj. 8: This argument proves that faith merits through charity, and this has been granted. (Q. 6, a. 9, ad 3.) Moreover, the objection holds true in those things that a man does by his own power, and accordingly, the intellect directs the will that commands the executive power. But in those actions where the divine power is executive, faith alone, which reposes on the divine power, suffices for action.

Reply Obj. 9: This argument considers the miracle insofar as it is wrought by God, whose every action in created things is motivated by love. Thus, God’s love did not permit him to be barren, as Dionysius says. (Pseudo-Dionysius, The Divine Names 4.10 (PG 3:707–8).) However, we are considering the miracle insofar as it comes from the man; therefore, the objection is not to the point.

Reply Obj. 10: The working of miracles is not properly ascribed to hope, because the object of hope is a thing to be obtained; therefore, it is only about eternal things. But faith is of things both eternal and temporal; and thus, it can extend to things that have yet to be done. For this reason, in the words quoted, the chief place is given to hope rather than to faith: he believed in hope (Romans 4:18).

Reply Obj. 11: The object of hope is something difficult to obtain but not difficult to do.

Reply Obj. 12: God’s power corresponds to hope inasmuch as he is above all in majesty, and the possession of this is the object of hope. But the power itself as effective of miracles is the basis on which faith is founded chiefly.

Reply Obj. 13: Outward signs of righteousness come from that faith by which the whole Church is justified, according to Romans 3:22, the justice of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

Reply Obj. 14: The martyrs showed fortitude in suffering and constancy in confessing on account of the firmness of their faith.

Reply Obj. 15: Abstinence also conduces to the working of miracles but not in the same degree as faith.

Reply Obj. 16: Though it be difficult to be constantly with women and not to fall, it is not a miracle, properly speaking, since it depends on a created power, namely, the free will.

Reply Obj. 17: The abuse of miracles by those who spoke ill of them does not detract from their efficacy in confirming the faith for those who were well-disposed.

Reply Obj. 18: The faith of Peter and Andrew is commended on account of their readiness to believe, and this was all the more enhanced as they needed fewer reasons for believing; and miracles by their very nature are to be reckoned among these reasons.

Reply Obj. 19: Faith is not a sufficient cause of working miracles but a certain disposition thereto. And miracles are wrought according to the ordering of divine providence, which gives men suitable remedies for various causes and in many ways.