THE MIRACLES OF THE GOSPEL.

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. — SUPERIORITY OF THE NATURE OF JESUS: — Dreams.

— Star of the magi.

— DOUBLE SIGHT: Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

— Kiss of Judas.

— Miraculous catch of fish.

— Calling of Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Matthew.

— HEALINGS: Loss of blood. — The blind man of Bethsaida. — The paralytic. — The ten lepers. — Withered hand. — The bent woman. — The paralytic of the pool.

— Man blind from birth. — Numerous healings by Jesus.

— THE POSSESSED.

— RESURRECTIONS: Daughter of Jairus.

— Son of the widow of Nain.

— OTHERS: Jesus walks upon the water. — Transfiguration. — The tempest calmed. — Wedding at Cana. — Multiplication of the loaves.

— The leaven of the Pharisees.

— The bread of Heaven. — Temptation of Jesus. — Prodigies at the death of Jesus. — Apparition of Jesus after his death. — Disappearance of the body of Jesus.

Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

— When they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, near the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them: Go to that village which is before you, and arriving there you will find a she-ass tied and her colt beside her; untie her and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, answer that the Lord has need of them, and he will at once let you lead them away. Now, all this came to pass so that this word of the prophet might be fulfilled: — Say to the daughter of Zion: Behold your king, who comes to you, full of gentleness, mounted on a she-ass and with the colt of her that is under the yoke. (Zechariah, IX, vv. 9, 10.)

The disciples then went and did as Jesus had commanded them. And, having brought the she-ass and the colt, they covered them with their garments and made him mount. (Saint Matthew, Chap. XXI, vv. 1 to 7.)

Kiss of Judas.

— Arise, let us go, for he who is to betray me is already near at hand. He had not yet finished saying these words when, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived, and with him a band of people armed with swords and clubs, sent by the chief priests and by the elders of the people. Now, he who betrayed him had given them a sign by which to recognize him, saying to them: He whom I shall kiss is the very one you seek: seize him.

Immediately, then, he approached Jesus and said to him: Master, I greet you; and he kissed him. Jesus answered him: My friend, what have you come to do here? At the same time, the others, advancing, fell upon Jesus and seized him. (Saint Matthew, Chap. XXVI, vv. 46 to 50.)

Miraculous catch of fish.

— One day, while Jesus was on the shore of the lake of Gennesaret, as the multitude of people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats moored at the edge of the lake, from which the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. He entered one of these boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little from the shore; and, having sat down, he taught the people from within the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon: Put out into the deep and cast your fishing nets. Simon answered him: Master, we toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless, since you command it, I will cast the net. Having cast it, they caught so great a quantity of fish that the net broke. They signaled to their companions who were in the other boat, that they should come and help them. They came and so filled both boats that they nearly sank. (Saint Luke, Chap. V, vv. 1 to 7.)

Calling of Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Matthew.

— Walking along the sea of Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers, Simon, called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, who were casting their nets into the sea, for they were fishermen; and he said to them: Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who were in a boat with Zebedee, the father of both, who were mending their nets, and he called them. They immediately left the nets and their father and followed him. (Saint Matthew, Chap. IV, vv. 18 to 22.)

Going out from there, Jesus, as he passed, saw a man seated at the tax booth, named Matthew, to whom he said: Follow me: and the man at once rose and followed him. (Saint Matthew, Chap. IX, v. 9.)

— These facts present nothing surprising, once one knows the power of double sight and the very natural cause of that faculty.

Jesus possessed it in a high degree, and it may be said that it constituted his normal state, as is attested by a great number of acts of his life, which, today, are explained by magnetic phenomena and by Spiritism.

The catch qualified as miraculous is likewise explained by double sight. Jesus did not spontaneously produce fish where there were none; he saw, with the sight of the soul, as a lucid waking subject could have done, the place where the fish were and told the fishermen with certainty to cast their nets there.

The penetration of thought [perception of another's thought], and consequently certain foreknowledge, derive from spiritual sight.

When Jesus calls to himself Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Matthew, it is because he knew their inner dispositions and knew that they would accompany him and that they were capable of carrying out the mission he intended to entrust to them.

And it was necessary that they themselves should have an intuition of the mission they were to carry out, so that, without hesitation, they would heed Jesus' call.

The same occurred when, at the time of the Supper, he announced that one of the twelve would betray him and pointed him out, saying that it was the one who put his hand into the dish; and it also occurred when he foretold that Peter would deny him.

In many passages of the Gospel one reads: "But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, says to them…" Now, how could he have known the thoughts of those he was speaking with, except through the fluidic radiations of those thoughts and, at the same time, through the spiritual sight that allowed him to read in their innermost being?

Often, supposing that a thought lies buried in the recesses of the soul, man does not suspect that he carries within himself a mirror in which that thought is reflected, a revealer in his own fluidic radiation, impregnated with it.

If we could see the mechanism of the invisible world that surrounds us, the ramifications of the conducting threads of thought, linking all intelligent beings, corporeal and incorporeal, the fluidic effluvia laden with the marks of the moral world, which, like aerial currents, traverse space, we would be far less surprised before certain effects that ignorance attributes to chance. (Chap. XIV, nos. 15, 22 and following.)