[왜 오늘날 교회에는 기적이 드물어졌을까?] 2026년 가해 연중 제13주간 목요일, 전삼용 요셉 신부

Thursday of the 13th Week in Ordinary Time, Year A, 2026 – Why Have Miracles Become Rare in the Church Today? In today's Gospel, Jesus sees a paralytic lying on a bed and speaks an unexpected word. "Son, take courage. Your sins are forgiven." (See Matthew 9:2) People expected Him to heal the illness, but He unexpectedly declares the forgiveness of sins first. Then the teachers of the law whisper amongst themselves: "This man is blaspheming God. Is it not only God who can forgive sins?" Their inner thoughts were indeed correct. The authority to forgive sins belongs solely to God. The problem lay in their failure to recognize that the person before their eyes was indeed God. Jesus saw through their hearts and asked: "Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'?" (See Matthew 9:5) Then He commands the paralytic to rise and walk. The sick man sprang up from his seat and returned home. Here, we find the key to today's meditation: that invisible authority is proven by visible signs. The forgiveness of sins is invisible. Therefore, He clearly demonstrated the truth of that invisible authority through visible healing. Since only the One who can forgive sins could raise a paralytic, the man who stood up was the living proof of the forgiveness of sins. This passage poses a heavy question to our church today. The church inherited that authority of forgiveness from Jesus. The Sacrament of Confession is it, and the Sacrament of the Eucharist is it. However, what would happen if the signs proving that authority were to disappear? People would increasingly doubt that invisible authority. They would fail to truly feel whether sins are forgiven or if that bread is truly His body. Frankly, the weakness of these signs plays a part in why the front of the confessional is deserted today and why people feel lighter before the Eucharist. If visible signs fail to provide support, faith in the invisible sacrament is bound to fade along with them. Then, is any sign good? Absolutely not. Here, we must understand the spiritual law that distinguishes true signs from false ones. That law is this: Satan can never heal a person. This is because love and healing belong solely to the realm of God the Creator. Consider Rasputin, the mystic who brought down the Russian Empire. He seized control of the imperial court and engaged in all manner of corruption under the pretext of curing the Crown Prince, who suffered from hemophilia. How could such an evil man wield the power of healing? The answer is simple. He never actually healed anyone. The Crown Prince's hemophilia was never cured. He merely used psychological hypnosis and cunning deception to make it appear as though there had been a brief improvement. This is the very essence of a false sign. It is not about actually eliminating the disease, but about creating the illusion that one is cured. It makes people call that brief relief—where pain subsides and stress is released, making them feel much better—a miracle. However, life does not change at all, and the root of the disease remains. Ultimately, the imperial family was deceived by that false miracle and lost the entire nation. God is light and love, but Satan is darkness and hatred; therefore, Satan, standing at the opposite end of the spectrum, cannot bestow God’s true healing. Then, what distinguishes true healing? True healing invariably involves the shedding of blood by the one who bestows it. This is because to truly take away someone’s suffering, someone else must bear that suffering in their place. Healing is not the disappearance of suffering, but the transfer of it. The suffering that departs from the sick person does not vanish into thin air. The one who heals embraces it with their own body. Therefore, true healing always involves the shedding of blood. The Bible testifies to this with conviction. The prophet Isaiah sang of the One who was to come in this way: "By his wounds we are healed" (see Isaiah 53:5). Behold. We are healed, yet He is the one who receives the beatings. Our suffering is transferred to Him. That is why the path Jesus chose to heal our sins was the cross. He poured out His entire blood to embrace the disease of our sin within His own body. It was the same in the wilderness long ago. To heal the people dying from fiery serpent bites, God had Moses make a bronze serpent and hang it on a pole. Those who looked at the lifted serpent lived (see Numbers 21:8-9). That sign of being lifted high foreshadowed Him who would one day be lifted up onto the cross to shed His blood for us. Healing always occurred at the very spot where someone was lifted up and shed blood. Therefore, an evil being can never heal others. This is because the evil one does not shed blood for others. Rather, they merely suck the blood of others to fill their own bellies. For whom would a mosquito give its blood? A false healer squeezes the lifeblood out of people like a mosquito to fill their own ...