November Saints and Seasons Article

                                                  

Saints and Seasons

It was simply miraculous watching as the 33 Chilean miners were extracted out of the earth. I waited anxiously throughout the afternoon and evening until the first man was brought up. Bursting forth from the Phoenix 2 rescue capsule, each was such an individual, yet each was one of “the 33.” 

I watched in amazement each time the capsule jerkily appeared a half mile under the earth, surely “one giant step for mankind” and then left to cheers, carrying another man up, up to the surface of God’s earth. Long minutes later it reappeared to more cheers. I watched and wept until the fourth man had been rescued and then went to bed, and began my own little vigil again in the morning with #13.

Throughout those two days, and since, I wondered at their first agonizing 17 days, not knowing if anyone knew they were there alive, whether their meager food would last, and then the long, excruciating time waiting for rescue in the dark, hot, humid earth. Would it work? I thought of being lifted up in the Phoenix capsule, totally helpless and dependent on their rescuers. And I wondered what the days ahead would hold for them - and the nights. 

One man was interviewed over the course of those long hours had been involved in a mining disaster this year in the US. In that one, miners were lost and he spoke with heart wrenching honesty and utter simplicity about his feelings of loss and numbness. Yes, surely some of them would have Post Traumatic Stress, said a psychologist. How could they not? But others would experience Post Traumatic Growth. I marveled as I listened to Mario Sepulveda being interviewed just hours after his rescue. So exuberant at his release from the grave, he sat quietly holding his wife’s hand. I missed the question, but I came in on: “No. I don’t think God tests us. But I am glad it happened to me because it was time to make changes in my life.” 

With nowhere else to turn we often turn toward our God, both our Source and our Goal, and find that His promise is ever true: “I will give you the treasures of darkness, and riches hidden in secret places.” (Isaiah 45:3) Whether figuratively or quite literally, our times of greatest stress and loss and danger can give us treasures that we have never sought or imagined, invaluable treasures that we can then share with others; the knowledge of God’s unfailing presence with us in the darkness. As one of the 33 rescued miners said “There were 34 of us down there because God never left us.”  He never will. 

Louise Buck 

November 2010 

@ Saints and Seasons is a monthly (except for August) column written by

Louise Buck for "The Gospel at Saint David's,"

 the monthly magazine of St David's Episcopal Church,

 5050 Milton St, San Diego CA.