Together with the Lord in the mine

Voluntary and officially ordered quarantine, curfew and other measures are restricting the free movement worldwide. Taking into consideration the number of countries involved in the pandemic and that we are a mere 8 milliard on the Globe, it can be really noted that never before have so many people at a time been locked around the world.

To be locked-up is quite a relative issue, since there are people imprisoned for several years, thus for them a quarantine in a comfortable flat or in a house with garden would be the freedom itself. Probably, the Chilean miners were also dreaming about their homes and beloved ones, while as from the 5th August 2020 being trapped in the Acatama desert San José copper- and gold mine, from where they could have been rescued 69 days later only, making this period of time a world record.

700 meters underground

As the Magyar Kurír has already written about it in connection with the release of the film about the Chilean miners’ story, it was publicly announced only 17 days after the mine collapse, that the mine workers could reach the 50 square meters shelter being 700 deep underground. They had light and could fill up their head lamps with the help of a machine battery, and got fresh air through the ventilating system. They managed to fix their messages onto a drill bit, so that to let the outside world: “we are fine, all the 33 of us in a shelter.”

At the 2011 National Prayer Breakfast held in Washington, miner José Henriquez was talking about their spiritual experience that have been outlived in the captivity of the land. He said: our survival had been owed mainly to our faith.

“We realised that we have one chance only, and that is God”.

-said Henriquez, then added:

“We belonged to diverse religions. I made them sit around and paid special attention to that every one of us could attend the prayer. And as we were praying, we started to feel God’s presence with us in the mine, and His blessing on us. It gave strength and vitality.”

Surely there were tensions down in the deep, there happened to be conflicts, but with the help of God and with the intermediation of others, peace could have been reached and maintained within the underground trapped community.

As to José Henriquez, the turning point was when all of them received a personalized Bible, bearing their name on it. It was the rescue team who forwarded them the Bible through that very narrow cave passage which had served as the supply channel of food, drink, medicine and everything else they were in need of.

Thank you Lord, thank you Jesus.

For the very day of returning to the surface the miners asked for unique “Thank you Lord, thank you Jesus” printed T-shirts, so to better express their feelings. The T-shirt back was printed by a Psalm 95. Quotation: “In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.”

Marking the 5th anniversary of their miraculous rescue, in 2015 Pope Frances met the miners in the course of the general audience, afterwards the miners were honoured to be greeted personally by His Holiness so they could present him with personalized gifts, a miner’s helmet and a picture that each of the 33 signed, while they all received blessed rosaries from the Pontiff. Pope Frances said: “I think that anyone of you could come up here and telling us what hope is all about. Thank you for trusting God.”

Nowadays, when the globe is facing the challenge of a quickly spreading pandemic, which quite understandably strikes fear in most of the people, when devastating news are arriving day by day on the increasing number of victims, the wonderful example of faith in God is that of the Chilean miners’ case, and this is going to be highly evaluated.

Being locked-in is relative. For many of us, being locked-in or being isolated means staying at home, avoiding the physical contact and meeting with our elderly beloved ones, we cannot meet our friends and cannot go to Church. The point of this quarantine locking is to slowing down the spread of the pandemic, so to ease and help the work of the doctors and the healthcare staff, enabling them to save others’ life.

Free in prison, in prison freely

At the same time not only the isolation, but the liberty itself is also relative. One can live in a villa, surrounded by luxury when the life and soul are tied to money, to pushy careerism and to the lust for power. Compared to this a faithful imprisoned person can feel himself liberated, regardless whether had been imprisoned wrongly or rightly, as was this beautifully exampled by the testimonies of Irén Szita and Csaba Sándor József in the Him and Me series.

The divine relativity theory of locked-in/freedom is that God is with us even when we are locked-in, He is able to give us hope in the hardest days. Even when our faith is going through a crisis, when we are longing for visible evidences on God’s existence. The test of faith is a tough situation. The more gloomy the picture is, the more God is held liable for, that He had let things happen alike. Other persons’ faith might snap us out from our hesitation, just think of the Chilean miners, who could feel God’s blessing presence 700 meters underground through their prayers.

Photo: Magyar Kurír