Augustine sees miracles as significant wonders that provide their
spectators with further insights into the reality of creation and its
Creator. God performs miracles, whether spontaneously or through angelic
or human agency, in order to alert and elevate fallen human persons to
his own omnipresent and omnipotent divinity. On account of pride and its
introduction of a dull and deadly complacency, humans have lost sight
of the astonishing aspects of sensible creation and have anesthetized
their sense of wonder. The value of wonder and of creation have become
cheapened by familiarity such that human persons have ceased to
appreciate the wonder and worth of their own existence which God has
brought into being from nothing. Particular miracles function to revive
and revitalize humanity’s deadened sense of wonder and to reawaken them
to the grand miracle of creation. Miracles burst open the visionary and
eschatological horizons of humanity such that we can behold in faith new
possibilities. Miracles serve as signs of the wondrous love of God for
humanity. Augustine appreciates that the love of God is so wonderful
that it not only elevates the human perspective to glimpse in faith the
divine, but also lifts humanity up to an eternal participation in God
thanks to the incarnation, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.
For Augustine, the grand miracle of visible creation, including
humanity, discovers its ultimate significance and wondrous destiny in
the greatest miracle of Jesus Christ raised from the depths of death and
ascended into the heights of glory.
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