St. Martin de Porres (5 of 9)

The Wonders of the Lord

  1. Modern science has had a special effect in many minds. Since we have been able to provide an explanation for many phenomena it is easy to think that everything can be explained. Since we have solved so many problems with the aid of technology, it is easy to imagine that every difficulty can be successfully tackled in technological terms.
  2. It should be noted that this is not the first time that human reason is presented as a perfect solution for understanding and dominating the world. Back in the Seventeen hundreds some thinkers began to proclaim their atheism on the grounds of human mind’s power. The same attitude resurfaces nowadays with the dress of skepticism or open mockery at religion.
  3. Nonetheless, there remain many unexplained facts. Many of us are familiar to Lourdes, for example. Dozens of well-documented miracles have happened in direct connection to prayer at the Grotto, in Lourdes. People have been cured and the physicians can only say: “We do know that this person had this illness… and he no longer has it, for no apparent reason.” Science has a limit, and whenever strong devotion flows, that limit emerges more than once.

Martin, the Miracle-Maker

  1. There are hundreds of testimonies about the wonders and miracles that filled St. Martin’s life. The “cloud of witnesses” includes male and female, young and elderly, lay people as religious as well. Let us read a couple of ancient testimonies, told by Giuliana Cavallini in her book on the life of our Saint.
  2. “One morning the master of novices sought out Martin and confided a great grief to him. Two novices had disappeared and could not be found anywhere. They must have fled. Martin promised the master of novices he would do his best to help find them, and began to pray. When he had finished, he went to ask the prior’s permission to go out. Knowing what had happened, the prior granted the permission, even though it was already night. Martin walked several miles and then stopped before the door of a house. The door was closed, but had made no difference to him. He entered and found the two fugitives tranquilly sleeping on two cots. Martin awoke them without one word of reproof. Instead, he began to speak in his pacifying and convincing tone of the beauty of the religious state, of the dignity of a life intimately united to the life of God, of the boundless field opened to love when a man closes his heart to the attractions of his lower nature and disposes himself to receive the light from on high. His whole discourse seemed so logical to the young men that they found it hard to believe they were really guilty of having fled from the monastery the day before. They heartily wished they had never done such a foolish thing. All they could think of now was how to get back to the monastery. The problem was simple for Martin. As long as the two culprits were sincerely repented, everything else would take care of itself. Just as he had entered the house alone through locked doors, he re-entered the monastery through its barred doors with the two novices. Thus, no one knew of their flight except the prior and the master of novices, and no shadow was cast on their honor as religious. They became good religious and remained members of the Order until their death.”
  3. Here it goes another one: “I have said it and I have repeated it millions of times–Father Ignatius of St. Dominic used to say–that I decided to become a Dominican because I saw Brother Martin de Porres in prayer, lifted high above the earth, almost embracing the crucified Christ of the chapter room.” “Oh, if Father Ignatius were only here–said Father Christopher one day to Marcel de Rivero, the surgeon–And is not my testimony enough?–replied de Rivero testily–I also saw him, just as Father Ignatius did, high above the ground, in the chapter room, and my word is just as good as his!”

What We Can Learn from St. Martin To-day

  1. Miracles do happen. It is good to remember this in order to escape a narrow vision of the world. Our Lord is the Lord of Wonders, and He has gone to the extreme of enduring his only Son’s death for the sake of our salvation. We have been powerfully loved by God and we can trust completely in his love, in his care, in his mercy.
  2. St. Martin’s miracles are linked to prayer, just as his entire life was. If we want to see the wonders of the Lord, the very beginning is a real life of prayer. Prayer itself is an amazing thing, for is nothing less than uniting our being with God, the Creator of the Universe.
  3. Every miracle has a message. This is evident enough in the gospel of St. John, for example, who uses to call Jesus’ miracles “signs” that ought be read. It is important that we do not stop in contemplating miracles as “funny things.” Through them, what we should attend is God’s Providence and the way He is calling us to lead a better, more faithful and more meaningful life.