"Since there have been cell phones with cameras, the Virgin has not appeared," said actress Miren Ibarguren in a recent promotional interview for the mystery series she stars in. The truth is that last week we witnessed several miracles on television and few talk about it.
The first thing to say is that miracles are a consequence of faith and not the other way around. "Your faith has saved you," Christ says to the hemorrhagic woman, to blind Bartimaeus or to the leper after they were healed. It is the person who opens himself to faith, a true interdimensional portal, that allows God to manifest his power in the visible world. It is also the reason, therefore, that the miracles we may witness do not guarantee that those who contemplate them will later believe.
The proof is in the thousands of people who witnessed Jesus' miracles live, as opposed to the few who remained with Him on the cross. In short, no matter how many people recorded with their cell phones an alleged apparition of the Virgin, such as the one pointed out by Ibarguren, it would not win many more followers to the Marian cause. One can always look for reasons to justify the extraordinary, one can always attribute to chance or special circumstances what has no rational explanation. Miracles are not signs for us to believe, but because we believe.
The fact is that in the past Youth Jubilee The first was the miracle of each young participant, who, with a little faith, managed to raise the money for the ticket, to pass that difficult exam and be able to have the summer off, to find a group at the last minute to go to the event. How many small prodigies were behind each of them to raise the money for the ticket, to pass that difficult exam and be able to have the summer off, to find a group in extremis to join...? Ask them, you will see how they confirm it.
And then there are the big events that speak for themselves. A concentration of a million young people today and not a single altercation or security problem? If I don't see it, I don't believe it!
What about the thunderous silence of those same million boys and girls that we saw on television at the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament during the vigil with Pope Leo XIV? Hands up the high school teacher who can easily achieve a similar silence in his class with just a few dozen students. If they want to see the miracle, watch the video of the Jubilee Vigil posted on the Vatican News Youtube channel. Truly amazing.
Because of the personal implications it entails, I would like to highlight another moment that took place during the extension that 120,000 young people of the Neocatechumenal Way experienced in Tor Vergata the day after the Mass with the Pope. It was the traditional vocational meeting that the international team of the Way (Kiko Argüello, Mario Pezzi and María Ascensión Romero) convenes after each world youth convocation. Presided over by the Cardinal Vicar of Rome, Baldassare Reina, in the context of a celebration of the Word in which many cardinals and bishops participated, the young people were invited to respond to the Lord's call to give their lives totally as priests, religious or missionaries "ad gentes".
The response was spectacular: a total of 10,000 young people said yes, expressing their willingness to leave everything-"house, brothers or sisters, father or mother, children or lands" (Mt 19:29)-to follow Jesus in one of these vocations of special consecration.
I invite you to look at this cross," Kiko Argüello told them. This is the image of freedom. The cross is the image of freedom. Here is a man who has given himself for you, who will set you free to give yourself to others and to stop offering everything to yourself". And the miracle of freedom happened.
The video is also on the Vatican News channel and the moment is from the minute 2:46:00. First, 5,000 boys running as if there were no tomorrow to reach the podium where they would receive the blessing with the imposition of hands from the bishops present; and then, 5,000 girls doing the same amid tears of joy and hugs while singing Psalm 45: "You are the most beautiful of men...". And the fact is that Jesus Christ, today, continues to make young people fall in love as they witness the evident failure of the romantic model proposed by society. It is a miracle that goes unnoticed by many who will attribute it to the emotional impact or to a collective hallucination. As Ascension Romero reminded them, alluding to the saint of the day, St. John Mary Vianney (1786-1859), who lived through a convulsive change of era similar to the one we are living through today, "in times of persecution and difficulty, the Lord always raises up many saints to help the Church and society".
The 10,000 who rose up at the Jubilee will not become priests, nuns or missionaries - they are now beginning, together with their parish priests and catechists, a time of discernment of that call - but that day will surely remain marked in their hearts as the one on which they experienced the infinite love of God that allows you to leave everything to follow him.
This was confirmed by Carmen Hernandez, initiator of the Neocatechumenal Way, currently in the process of beatification: "What is really important is that Christ is risen, and to meet him. To be a priest, a nun, married, single, widowed or whatever is nonsense; the important thing is to meet Jesus Christ". The quote is taken from the book Undivided heart. (BAC, 2025), by Josefina Ramón Berná, which has delighted many of my vacation days, and which gathers a synthesis of Carmen's revolutionary thinking on women, virginity, celibacy and married life. It should be a must in the library of convents and communities of consecrated women, seminaries and those responsible for Vocation and Family Ministry, because her intuitions are absolutely providential.
The miracle of the young people raised at Tor Vergata was recorded by thousands of cell phones of those present and televised live, but not many will believe in its supernatural origin. Young people who claim to have met Jesus Christ? Crazy. Seeing is not believing.
Journalist. Graduate in Communication Sciences and Bachelor in Religious Sciences. He works in the Diocesan Delegation of Media in Malaga. His numerous "threads" on Twitter about faith and daily life have a great popularity.
