Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Q105 A7: Whether whatever God does outside the natural order is miraculous?

Yes. Those things which God does outside those causes which we know, are called miracles, because a miracle is so called as being full of wonder, as having a cause absolutely hidden from all; and this cause is God.

Illa quae a Deo fiunt praeter causas nobis notas, miracula dicuntur, quia miraculum dicitur quasi admiratione plenum, quod scilicet habet causam simpliciter et omnibus occultam; haec autem est Deus.

Creation, and the justification of the unrighteous, though done by God alone, are not, properly speaking, miracles, because they are not of a nature to proceed from any other cause; so they do not occur outside the order of nature, since they do not belong to that order.

Creatio, et iustificatio impii, etsi a solo Deo fiant, non tamen, proprie loquendo, miracula dicuntur. Quia non sunt nata fieri per alias causas, et ita non contingunt praeter ordinem naturae, cum haec ad ordinem naturae non pertineant.

A miracle is said to go beyond the hope "of nature," not above the hope "of grace," which hope comes from faith, whereby we believe in the future resurrection.

Supra spem etiam naturae miraculum esse dicitur, non supra spem gratiae, quae est ex fide, per quam credimus resurrectionem futuram.

Augustine says (Contra Faust. xxvi, 3): "Where God does anything against that order of nature which we know and are accustomed to observe, we call it a miracle."

Augustinus dicit, XXVI contra Faustum, quod "cum Deus aliquid facit contra cognitum nobis cursum solitumque naturae, magnalia, vel mirabilia nominantur."