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fpbWhat just happened in Chile is awesome. The kind of titanic display of advanced technology, high competence and overwhelming organization that not so long ago seemed restricted to places like the USA and Germany has been deployed by a mid-sized Latin American country; little bits of help may have come from here or there, but the whole impulse, organization and direction of the immense effort was Chilean. Well may Chileans wax patriotic, wave their flags and sing their national anthem; nobody will begrudge it to them.
But there is another thing to be noticed. Everyone, from the President to the last miner and technician, spoke in religious terms. All the Chileans, the nation above and the miners below, did everything they could to achieve a positive result, with the most enormous display of human ingenuity, resolution and discipline; and then - they fell on their knees and thanked God. We have seen once more that feeling to which psalmists gave words 2500 or more years ago: "Not to ourselves, o Lord, but to Your Name give glory"; "Unless the Lord build the city, the workers labour in vain."
But there is another thing to be noticed. Everyone, from the President to the last miner and technician, spoke in religious terms. All the Chileans, the nation above and the miners below, did everything they could to achieve a positive result, with the most enormous display of human ingenuity, resolution and discipline; and then - they fell on their knees and thanked God. We have seen once more that feeling to which psalmists gave words 2500 or more years ago: "Not to ourselves, o Lord, but to Your Name give glory"; "Unless the Lord build the city, the workers labour in vain."
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Date: 2010-10-14 12:24 am (UTC)Amen
Date: 2010-10-14 01:15 am (UTC)Dorothy Day wrote about being in San Francisco during the great earthquake in (I believe) 1906. She later wondered why people, who responded so well in times of crisis, couldn't always be so eager to help their neighbors.
I was reminded of that seeing the miners rescue.