Whether Christ Began to Work Miracles When He Changed Water into Wine
at the Marriage Feast?
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ did not begin to work miracles
when He changed water into wine at the marriage feast. For we read in
the book _De Infantia Salvatoris_ that Christ worked many miracles in
His childhood. But the miracle of changing water into wine at the
marriage feast took place in the thirtieth or thirty-first year of
His age. Therefore it seems that it was not then that He began to
work miracles.
Obj. 2: Further, Christ worked miracles by Divine power. Now He was
possessed of Divine power from the first moment of His conception;
for from that instant He was both God and man. Therefore it seems
that He worked miracles from the very first.
Obj. 3: Further, Christ began to gather His disciples after His
baptism and temptation, as related Matt. 4:18 and John 1:35. But the
disciples gathered around Him, principally on account of His
miracles: thus it is written (Luke 5:4) that He called Peter when "he
was astonished at" the miracle which He had worked in "the draught of
fishes." Therefore it seems that He worked other miracles before that
of the marriage feast.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (John 2:11): "This beginning of
miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee."
_I answer that,_ Christ worked miracles in order to confirm His
doctrine, and in order to show forth His Divine power. Therefore, as
to the first, it was unbecoming for Him to work miracles before He
began to teach. And it was unfitting that He should begin to teach
until He reached the perfect age, as we stated above, in speaking of
His baptism (Q. 39, A. 3). But as to the second, it was right that He
should so manifest His Godhead by working miracles that men should
believe in the reality of His manhood. And, consequently, as
Chrysostom says (Hom. xxi in Joan.), "it was fitting that He should
not begin to work wonders from His early years: for men would have
deemed the Incarnation to be imaginary and would have crucified Him
before the proper time."
Reply Obj. 1: As Chrysostom says (Hom. xvii in Joan.), in regard to
the saying of John the Baptist, "'That He may be made manifest in
Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water,' it is clear that
the wonders which some pretend to have been worked by Christ in His
childhood are untrue and fictitious. For had Christ worked miracles
from His early years, John would by no means have been unacquainted
with Him, nor would the rest of the people have stood in need of a
teacher to point Him out to them."
Reply Obj. 2: What the Divine power achieved in Christ was in
proportion to the needs of the salvation of mankind, the achievement
of which was the purpose of His taking flesh. Consequently He so
worked miracles by the Divine power as not to prejudice our belief in
the reality of His flesh.
Reply Obj. 3: The disciples were to be commended precisely because
they followed Christ "without having seen Him work any miracles," as
Gregory says in a homily (Hom. v in Evang.). And, as Chrysostom says
(Hom. xxiii in Joan.), "the need for working miracles arose then,
especially when the disciples were already gathered around and
attached to Him, and attentive to what was going on around them.
Hence it is added: 'And His disciples believed in Him,'" not because
they then believed in Him for the first time, but because then "they
believed with greater discernment and perfection." Or they are called
"disciples" because "they were to be disciples later on," as
Augustine observes (De Consensu Evang. ii).
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