When they make the movie about the this week’s awe-inspiring rescue of 33 Chilean miners, we can only hope the role their Catholic faith played in seeing them through the literal darkness will receive its due.
While a certain amount of discussion has ensued over whether the event qualifies as an actual miracle, there can be little doubt that faith sustained not only the miners but their families and rescuers as well.
Those maintaining the case for calling the event a “miracle” will cite the mysterious white butterfly credited with saving the lives of two of the miners. Here’s that part of the story, as reported by CNN in September, prior to the miners’ rescue:
It was early afternoon on August 5, and (Jorge) Galeguillos was heading back down
into the mine aboard a Nissan Terrano pick-up truck. His friend, former soccer
star Franklin Lobos, was at the wheel.
“We had been up to the workshop and as we were driving back down, a slab of
rock caved in just behind us. It crashed down only a few seconds after we drove
past. Just ahead I saw a white butterfly,” Galeguillos wrote in the two-page
letter to his brother Eleodoro, also a miner.
“After that, we were caught in an avalanche of dirt and dust. I couldn’t see
my hand in front of my face. The tunnel was collapsing and the rocks buried a
backhoe. A water tank lower down was almost completely buried too,” he
continued.
A huge slab of rock collapsed behind them, totally blocking the mineshaft
between Level 190 (the level corresponds to the height above sea level measured
in meters) and Level 335, a level higher up the mine closer to the entrance.
In turn, that collapse triggered a series of smaller cave-ins and rockfalls
further down the mineshaft, according to rescue workers.
As the dust cleared, Lobos and Galeguillos began driving again and managed to
negotiate their way around the other rockfalls that had partially blocked the
lower reaches of the 4-meter-wide tunnel. They were eventually able to reach 31
fellow miners, who were, by then, huddled for safety in the 50-square-meter
refuge on Level 100.
Galeguillos’ brother says he has no rational explanation about how a tiny
white butterfly could have flown more than 500 meters deep into the mine.
The butterfly apparently caused them to slow down just enough to avoid being directly under the falling rocks triggered by the first cave-in.
The same article quotes mining consultant Miguel Fortt as speculating that the butterfly could have been caught in a downdraft generated by the first collapse that pulled the insect through the mine’s ventilation system, noting that “People who are religious would call this a miracle. From a scientific
perspective, the butterfly may have flown into the mine on air currents. You can
draw your own conclusions but that butterfly saved their lives.”
The Lord, as they say, moves in mysterious ways.
***
Note: The timeline shows the Chilean cave-in occurred on August 5th. Contact with the miners was not established until17 long days later on August 22 when hope had already begun to fade. Perhaps the happy ending in the case of the miners offers some hope to the family of Steven Mayer.
Mayer of Great Neck extends well into its second heartbreaking week, police are
looking for his car, a 2010 silver Nissan Sentra (Plate # EWN 4035), in the hope
that locating it will provide the necessary clue that leads to his whereabouts.
Also sought is his missing cell phone.
His wife and son appeared on
WPIX-TV to ask the public for its vigilance and help in locating the
65-year-old scrap metal trader who works in Huntington, Long Island. Click here
to see the video and learn more details.
Steven Mayer is described as
being 5′ 8″, 190 lbs. with brown hair and glasses. Anyone with information is
urged to call the Mayer family at 1-516-847-5005, or police at 911.
Let’s
continue to pray that he is found safe and is reunited with his loving family.
Steven Mayer
Read Previous Post