CCC 472 This human soul that the Son of God assumed is endowed with a true human knowledge. As such, this knowledge could not in itself be unlimited: it was exercised in the historical conditions of his existence in space and time. This is why the Son of God could, when he became man, “increase in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man”,1 and would even have to inquire for himself about what one in the human condition can learn only from experience.2 This corresponded to the reality of his voluntary emptying of himself, taking “the form of a slave”.3
CCC 548 The signs worked by Jesus attest that the Father has sent him. They invite belief in him.4 To those who turn to him in faith, he grants what they ask.5 So miracles strengthen faith in the One who does his Father’s works; they bear witness that he is the Son of God.6 But his miracles can also be occasions for “offence”;7 they are not intended to satisfy people’s curiosity or desire for magic Despite his evident miracles some people reject Jesus; he is even accused of acting by the power of demons.8
CCC 994 But there is more. Jesus links faith in the resurrection to his own person: “I am the Resurrection and the life.”9 It is Jesus himself who on the last day will raise up those who have believed in him, who have eaten his body and drunk his blood.10 Already now in this present life he gives a sign and pledge of this by restoring some of the dead to life,11 announcing thereby his own Resurrection, though it was to be of another order. He speaks of this unique event as the “sign of Jonah,”12 the sign of the temple: he announces that he will be put to death but rise thereafter on the third day.13
CCC 1504 Often Jesus asks the sick to believe.14 He makes use of signs to heal: spittle and the laying on of hands,15 mud and washing.16 The sick try to touch him, “for power came forth from him and healed them all.”17 And so in the sacraments Christ continues to “touch” us in order to heal us.
CCC 2616 Prayer to Jesus is answered by him already during his ministry, through signs that anticipate the power of his death and Resurrection: Jesus hears the prayer of faith, expressed in words (the leper, Jairus, the Canaanite woman, the good thief)18 or in silence (the bearers of the paralytic, the woman with a hemorrhage who touches his clothes, the tears and ointment of the sinful woman).19 The urgent request of the blind men, “Have mercy on us, Son of David” or “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” has-been renewed in the traditional prayer to Jesus known as the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!”20 Healing infirmities or forgiving sins, Jesus always responds to a prayer offered in faith: “Your faith has made you well; go in peace.”
St. Augustine wonderfully summarizes the three dimensions of Jesus’ prayer: “He prays for us as our priest, prays in us as our Head, and is prayed to by us as our God. Therefore let us acknowledge our voice in him and his in us.”21
1 Lk 2:52.
2 Cf. Mk 6 38; 8 27; Jn 11:34; etc.
3 Phil 2:7.
4 cf. Jn 5:36; 10:25, 38.
5 Cf. Mk 5:25-34; 10:52; etc.
6 Cf. Jn 10:31-38.
7 Mt 11:6.
8 Cf. Jn 11:47-48; Mk 3:22.
9 Jn 11:25.
10 Cf. Jn 5:24-25; 6:40,54.
11 Cf. Mk 5:21-42; Lk 7:11-17; Jn 11.
12 Mt 12:39.
13 Cf. Mk 10:34; Jn 2:19-22.
14 Cf. Mk 5:34, 36; 9:23.
15 Cf. Mk 7:32-36; 8:22-25.
16 Cf. Jn 9:6-7.
17 Lk 6:19; cf. Mk 1:41; 3:10; 6:56.
18 Cf. Mk 1:40-41; 5:36; 7:29; Cf. Lk 23:39-43.
19 Cf. Mk 25; 5:28; Lk 7:37-38.
20 Mt 9:27, Mk 10:48.
21 St. Augustine, En. in Ps. 85, 1: PL 37, 1081; cf. GILH 7.