Carlo Acutis, born 1991, died 2006, was beatified today by the Catholic Church.
The next step is for Acutis to be made a saint — the first millennial saint, if God and Church will it.
So what’s the story?
Acutis lived a pretty holy life before dying of leukemia at age 15. He worked to help the poor… he defended the rights of the disabled… he documented Eucharistic miracles and used his programming skill to make a website that catalogued them.
But that’s not what got him beatified. Instead, it took a literal miracle.
As you might know, when the pharisees came to Jesus to ask for a sign of his divinity… Jesus scorned them and sent them away.
But the Catholic Church doesn’t operate like that.
The Catholic Church requires you to perform a documented miracle in order to be beatified… and two if you want to become a saint. (Acutis supposedly helped a Brazilian boy get healed of a pancreatic defect.)
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not here to harp on the Catholic Church or to nitpick whether they’re consistent with the words of Jesus.
I simply want to point out that if, like the Catholic Church, you want to appeal to everyone (and the Catholic Church does, it’s right there in the name)…
Then you can’t be as dismissive as Jesus was when people ask you for a sign.
Because the multitudes need miracles… they need signs… or if you want to put it into persuasion and influence terms, they need concreteness.
Listing logical reasons and abstract arguments… that’s hard to people to get a grasp on. But giving demonstrations, showing case studies, or just citing specifics… well, that can be miraculously persuasive.
Perhaps you find all this blasphemous. Perhaps you feel that not every decent human act needs to be a lesson about persuasion and manipulation. In that case, you definitely won’t be interested in my daily email newsletter.
On the other hand, if you were not offended by the discussion above and you want to get on that newsletter… then click here.