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Perhaps the most spectacular of dead people who were permitted by God to pay a visit to world was that of Peter Miles. His visit confirmed the belief that the souls in purgatory, although in terrible suffering, are happy that heaven is assured and thus take their sufferings the same way a sick person accepts any painful treatment being administered to him in order to cure him of his ailment.

If a sick person requires an injection to be cured, he desires it, and even begs for it, even though he knows it will cause him some pain. This is because he knows that it is necessary for him to go through it in order to get cured. In the same way, the souls in purgatory are grateful at being given the opportunity to be purged of their sins in order to enter eternal glory.

In the year 1070, when Boleslas II was the Duke of Poland, there was a Bishop by name Stanislaus (now a saint) who then was the Bishop of Cracow, Poland. He never failed to remind the Duke of his just duties whenever the latter was seen to engage in acts likely to scandalize his subjects. The Duke was not happy with this and sought ways to take revenge on the prelate who was merely exercising his holy duties towards all to ensure their salvation.

Peter Miles, owned a piece of land near the church of Cracow. He sold this piece of land to the Bishop in the presence of some witnesses; and the land became part of the church compound thereafter. Peter Miles later died and three years after his death, Duke Boleslas II came up with his planned revenge on the Bishop.

He incited the children of Peter Miles to claim that the Bishop usurped their father’s land without paying for it. He went further to bribe all the witnesses, and used his position as the Duke of Poland to intimidate them.

When the case was brought up for hearing, the witnesses, to the surprise of the Bishop denied ever being present when the land was sold to the church. The Bishop was therefore disgraced, and denounced as a usurper of the property of another, and ordered by the court to make restitution. With a sorrowful heart the Bishop raised his heart to God and prayed silently, and he received a sudden divine inspiration, which made him speak thus: “Since I have been painted a liar and usurper, and no longer have any witness to testify to the truth of my claim, may I humbly ask for a delay of three days to enable me bring in person, the-man who sold the piece of land to me to testify”.

The court granted his request, with scorn. Those among the crowd in the court who knew that Peter Miles had died some three years ago, thought that the Bishop was going to make a desperate effort to bring one other witness who would not denounce him like the other witnesses. St. Stanislaus then fasted; watched and prayed to God to take up the defense of his cause, since he had no other person alive to defend him. He continued praying and fasting, and on the third day, after having celebrated Holy Mass in his church, he went out to the place where Peter Miles was buried three years before. He was accompanied by all the reverend fathers, reverend sisters and many of the faithful in his diocese.

On arrival at the burial ground, the crowd moved towards Peter Mile’s grave. The Bishop ordered that the grave be opened. The workman started work and opened up the grave. It contained nothing but bones of the dead man. He touched these bones with his Crosier, and in the name of Jesus, who is the Resurrection and the life, he commanded the dead man to arise, following the instructions and directives of the divine urge inside him. Suddenly, and in the presence of the whole people who had gathered there, the bones moved and reunited, each staying in its normal position when alive. Next, they saw human flesh forming over the bones, and being covered with clothing as it formed. Moments later, and before the stupefied crowd, some of whom fled with fear, there arose from the grave Mr. Peter Miles. He stretched forth his hand and held that of the Bishop who led him to the tribunal.

As both men approached the court, followed by the crowd which was now singing praise to God, there was a stampede among the huge crowd that had gathered. This case had received a great amount of publicity since it began and many people came to the court that day. The Duke and the judges who did not know Peter Miles in person stood their ground along with many others in the court, while those who knew him fled in fear.

Those among the crowd who knew that Peter Miles had died, could not believe their eyes as they beheld another Peter Miles approaching the court. Upon entering the court, the Bishop turned to the Duke and said: “Behold Peter; he comes, prince, to give testimony before you. Interrogate him; he will answer you. ‘’

It is impossible to depict the stupefaction of the Parish councilors and other citizens of Cracow who were able to recognize the Peter Miles they had buried three years before. The Duke and the Judge were told that the man they were looking at died 3 years ago. Without anyone having any more courage left to open his mouth to question him, Peter spoke up. He affirmed that he sold the land to the Bishop and that he was paid by him for it. Then turning to his children who stood trembling with fear, the dead man reproached them for having accused the pious prelate against all rights of justice; then he warned them to do penance for so grievous a sin.

Wishing to complete this great miracle for the greater glory of God, the bishop proposed to the deceased that if he desired to live a few more years on earth, now that he was back to life, he would be able to obtain such a favour for him from God. At this, Peter replied that he had no such desire. He said that he was in Purgatory, but that he would prefer to return there immediately to continue his suffering rather than take the risk of living in this world again because he was not sure he would be lucky to escape eternal damnation if he lived again as a human being. He begged the bishop to only beg God to shorten the time of his suffering in Purgatory so that he might be delivered.

 

After that, the bishop again led him back to the grave in the company of a big crowd of people. When they arrived at his grave, Peter waved at the crowd, shook the bishop’s hand and laid himself down in his grave. Suddenly, before all eyes, his body fell to pieces, and his bones resumed the same state in which they had first been found, and the grave covered again.

Soon afterwards, several people including the Bishop engaged themselves in prayers and offering of holy masses for the repose of the soul of Mr. Miles. Although he did not make any apparition to announce his deliverance from purgatory, yet there was reason to believe that Peter Miles was soon delivered from those purgatorial flames by the prayers of the Bishop and several other people.

Miracles are acts or events that do not follow the laws of nature and are believed to be caused by supernatural powers. They often fill us with wonder and bewilderment as they are often beyond human explanation. However, not. many are aware that some miracles are brought about by the evil spirits of the devil. Very often it is not easy for people to decipher or identify which spirit is at work in any particular event or situation – the holy spirit from God or the evil spirits from the devil or Satan. The Holy Catholic Church which Christ founded and left to guide and feed the world with His doctrine is always able to do this and cannot be deceived by the devil “Peter, feed my sheep” (John 21: 16) “The gates of hell will never prevail against my Church” (Mathew 16: 18). This is why St. John states that we must first test the Spirit to find out whether it is coming from God or from the devil (1 John 4: 1). These spirits not only work miracles but also speak to us. Some people are spoken to by the Spirit of Satan and they think it is the Spirit of God. Satan is very intelligent and clever. His Spirit can sometimes lure us away by initially telling us to do certain things which the  Holy  Spirit of  God would normally like us t

In its strategy to get us into its fold, it can, not only work miracles in answer to prayers, but also advise us not to commit one sin or another, and urge us to do certain good in order to leave us with the impression that it is the spirit of God that is at work. To obey him in this guise gives him much pleasure and satisfaction, and exposes us to his grip late

We are perhaps very familiar with the Bible story of Moses and the  Egyptian magicians.  Working with the Spirit of God, Moses was able to turn a stick into a snake. The Egyptian magicians, working with the spirit of Satan were also able to turn their own sticks into snakes. However to show the superiority of God’s Spirit, the snake from Aaron and Moses had to swallow the snakes from those magicians (Exodus 7: 9 – 13).

Today, in our towns and villages, people with occultic powers from the devil perform such miracles as changing a human being into an animal or making a barren woman pregnant, having a dead person vomit money, and curing some kinds of diseases, including madness.

God drove Lucifer (Satan) and all the angels who rebelled with him out of heaven. But He left them with their powers and abilities. He must have done this in order to test us and find out those who would prefer to associate or worship the devil rather than worship Him who is the giver of all powers.

So those who reject God and prefer the agents of the devil for help may get the help, but will eventually pay very dearly for it, to their regret and sorro

The ability to work miracles or receive miracles is no indication of holiness. It is possible for a great miracle worker to go to hell on judgement day. The Bible states this very clearly in the response Jesus will give some miracle workers who on judgement day will try to remind Jesus of their· prowess in performing all sorts of miracles in His name, including casting out demons. Jesus will say to them: “Get away from me, you wicked people” – Matthew 7:23.

Anyone who has strong faith can use the name of Jesus to perform miracles. This faith has nothing to do with the state of a person’s soul. One could be a criminal or a prostitute but has a strong faith. If she calls on the name of Jesus, she can perform miracles with that name. She might still end up in hell at the end if she fails to repent, in spite of the mi

Cormac Burke states that “without obedience, we are not going to be saved, because salvation does not depend on having humanitarian or pious sentiments, but on fulfilling the will of God”. Our Lord Himself made this clear when He said: “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord Lord’ shall, enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does, the will of my father who is in heaven (Matt. 7:21) Burke points out that even when we have strong faith that works miracles, or spend our whole time preaching the word of God, fasting, praying and working wonders with. the name of Jesus but are disobedient to any legitimate authority under which we are, (Like the Church, or our husband or our parents) in matters that are not sinful if obeyed, then we are not doing the will of God, and so will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.

What a miracle worker does or preaches may not always be correct or true, for he is not infallible or above error. The promise of infallibility was only made to the Church founded by Christ Himself, and not to every other individual or every member of this Church. And it was not promised any other Church founded by any human being, whether living or dea

St. Paul confirmed this error-free promise made by His Church by the Lord when he said in Ephesians 5:27 that the Church is “pure and faultless, without spot or wrinkle or any other imperfection”.

This is why any other Church or a bishop can support or encourage gay marriages (homosexuality) – the very sin for which God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, which the Catholic Church through her magisterium headed by the Pope teaches to be wrong and unacceptable to God because the Holy Spirit guides and directs her as was promised by Jesus- (John 1

In summary therefore all miracle workers fall into the following categories:

1)   Those who have strong faith and are also holy and doing the will of God. They can use the powerful name of Jesus to perform wonders and have hope of eternal salvation if they remain steadfast in this condition.

2)   Those who have strong faith but live in sin or are disobedient to legitimate authority under which they are, can still work miracles with the name of Jesus.

3)   Those who worship the devil secretly and use his powers to perform miracles. Faith is not needed here (e.g. black magicians).

4)   Those who do not have enough faith but to whom the spirit of Satan responds even when they are calling Jesus, Jesus (Matt. 7:23). They may not be aware that they are performing with the power of Satan and not that of Je

Salvation depends on doing the will of God summarized in Loving God and loving our neighbour. The love of God is shown by obeying His commandments and the commandments of the Church He founded and authorized to look after us (the sheep), feeding us with the truth He taught. “Peter, feed my sheep, feed my lambs” (John 21:

Having been placed on the way to heaven by means of the graces of God which he had appointed his blessed mother, Mary as Treasurer and distributor and which Mary has released to us because we call on her daily through her Rosary, we now move with joy along this road to heaven.

As we move along, we should expect to encounter not only milk and honey but also vinegar and thorns. This vinegar and thorns represent the unpleasant things or discomfort of life which Jesus described as crosses.

He said that we must be prepared to carry our crosses and follow him if we are truly his disciples or those who love him – Mathew 16:24.

When these crosses come to us, we often see them as suffering.

We believe we are suffering, and often feel like rejecting them without knowing that they are often fore-runners or fore-bearers of our blessings

 

 

It is shown in the Bible that both poverty and riches come from God.(1Samuel 2:7), and also says that God is good all the time (Mark 10:18).

It is therefore out of His infinite goodness and wisdom that He makes some people poor and others rich.

It has been explained earlier that nothing can happen in this world which God is not aware of and has not given approval of, no matter where it originates from. If the devil puts it into someone’s mind to go and steal in order to become rich, the person uses the free-will which God has given him to decide to accept the devil’s advice and go to steal, or reject it. If he accepts it and carries out that sinful act, it is because God has permitted it to happen. If He does not permit it, He knows how to stop it from happening and there are many ways He can do this. For example, God can cause the robber’s child to suddenly fall very sick, and force him to rush his child to the hospital, instead of going out to steal. He can also cause the robber’s car to break down on the way to the robbery or allow him to be caught as he tries to commence the robbery.

The same thing applies to wealth coming from any of the four sources of wealth. None of them can succeed if God does not give final approval to any effort made in any of the directions to achieve success with such plans.

Whichever way a person goes to achieve wealth, Gods justice stands to judge him on the person’s last day on earth. The verdict of heaven, hell, or purgatory awaits him in accordance with what he has done during his life on earth.

In the same way, God allows some people to be poor, out of His wisdom and goodness. If He had made everyone rich, and nobody to be poor, a lot of losses would have been sustained:

 


EXAMPLES OF THESE LOSSES
 

1. If God had made everybody rich and nobody poor, the rich would

not find any poor person to practice charity on. The loss to be sustained here is that the reward and blessings from God for giving help to the poor and needy would be lost.

 

The Bible states that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and reveals that no sin shall go unpunished , but encourages by also revealing that acts of love or charity covers a multitude of sins (1Peter4:8)

This means that through our acts of charity, the temporal punishment which awaits our sins are covered up and pardoned or deleted from our Book of Life (Revelation 13:8) or book of Records in heaven, which will be opened on our day of judgment.

The consequence is that God’s punishment waiting for us for the sins we are always committing, remains unmitigated, and we suffer it in full. This is a very big loss.

2. If there were no poor people, those who would have been in this group would stand to lose the blessings that would have been poured on them by God for the thanksgiving and glory they would have given to God for the favour they received from the rich. Here God Himself would lose the glory the poor would have given Him; and this is one precious gift mankind can give to God, and which He desires and demands from us:- GIVING GLORY TO GOD.

3. A good measure of Happiness (which is the ultimate goal in life)

would have been lost to both the rich and the poor if poverty did not

exist and if God had made everyone rich.

It is common knowledge that Happiness is the greatest Treasure. It is bigger and more desirable than silver, gold and diamond. All the struggles of man in this life is to be happy. Having discovered that money is the route or channel to achieve it, everyone appears to be going after money. It is with money that a person is able to acquire those things he needs to make himself happy and enjoy life. So HAPPINESS and NOT MONEY is the ultimate goal. And this is what God has reserved as the Great Reward for those who succeed in going to Heaven. These are those who do His will and obey His commandments while here on earth. We all struggle and suffer our bodies to end up in heaven because here we are assured of everlasting HAPPINESS.

So, any bit of happiness in this life is a treasure to be highly valued.

 

We all know that charitable acts bring happiness to both the giver and the receiver. This happiness would be lost both to the rich that gives and the poor that would have received, if there were no poor persons to be given. Although a rich person can give to another rich person, but that would be like ‘carrying coal to Newcastle’. God is more pleased when the rich give to the suffering poor, than when the rich give to a fellow contented rich person.

4) Another Loss is that of the happiness a poor person experiences when transformed from his poverty to wealth. Also to be lost is the thanksgiving and glory to God which he is bound to give.

All to whom he is dear joins in his happiness and giving of praise, thanks and glory to God who responds by pouring out His blessings on all those who have done so.

All the losses to be suffered had God made everyone rich in this world cannot be exhausted in this short article.

5. Also to be lost if God had not made some people poor is the praise, thanksgiving and glory the rich give to God as they see all that poor people suffer. When rich people see how poor people are unable to cope with several of the basic necessities of life, and are unable to even take care of their health when they fall sick and even die as consequence, they thank and praise God spontaneously and give him all the glory for not making them poor, to suffer all that they see the poor going through.

Giving God praise, glory and thanksgiving are among the things that please Him greatly, and to which He responds by pouring out His abundant blessings on the givers of such acts of praise, thanksgiving

and glory to Him from whom all good things come. It gives Him pleasure to have cause to pour out His blessings on His creatures who do His will and make Him happy.

The rich live in beautiful mansions, move about in beautiful cars and jets, and eat very sumptuous meals, wear beautiful and expensive clothes and jewelleries, and gladden their hearts with delicious wines, while the poor cannot afford any of these. They, on the other hand suffer great deprivation of these and often end up dying in misery and want.

 

Seeing the big difference between them and the poor elicits

spontaneous happiness and gratitude to God in the hearts of the rich for His not making them suffer all they see the poor going through.

The poor themselves, upon seeing how blessed the rich are, as

Compared with what they see themselves suffer, beseech God in prayers, frequent their churches, mosques, and other such places of worship to beg Him to bless them as He has blessed the rich. Such places of worship are consequently filled up with the poor who come to beg for riches to come their way, as well as the rich who come to thank and praise God for making them rich and not suffer like the poor, and who also beg Him to increase their riches and general well being.

If on the other hand the Almighty had made everybody poor, suffering would have been taken as normal way of life as there would not be any rich persons for the poor to compare their lives with, and God would have lost (humanly speaking) all the praise, glory and thanksgiving from the rich . Yes, it is, speaking in human terms, because this God of ours is Almighty who is complete and sufficient unto Himself, and has never, and does not ever, and will not ever suffer any loss whatsoever.

What a drab world mankind would have found itself in, if it were so!

How infinitely wise and amazing this God of ours truly is!