Opinion The very human miracle

The first men reached the surface on 13-10-10 — or 10-13-10 for Americans — and that adds up to 33. No wonder there was much talk of miracles and God. “A grand miracle,” the wife of Florencio Ávalos,the first miner to emerge,said.

Let’s set miracles aside for a moment. Something primordial has been going on in Chile. That’s why the rescue held humanity riveted. Burial alive is the ultimate horror,the stuff of nightmares that,in one form or other,have haunted everyone.

To return from interment compels the imagination. The most powerful portrayal of such return is surely Piero della Francesca’s “Resurrection,” where Christ — his expression at once stunned and all-knowing (for he has seen what we can only imagine and is experiencing the unthinkable) — stands,one leg on a parapet,at the very moment of his rising. Four soldiers slumber beneath his powerful form.

I recall,at 17,seeing the painting for the first time in the small Italian town of Sansepolcro and being overcome. Aldous Huxley called it “the greatest painting in the world.” The work is breathtaking because the artist has rendered an unnatural occurrence — a man’s return from the grave — in a way that embodies the twinned humanity and godliness on which that entire religious faith hinges. But of course Piero della Francesca was depicting a miracle,which the Scottish philosopher David Hume described as “a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the Deity,or by the interposition of some invisible agent.” A miracle,because it is inexplicable by natural causes alone,buttresses theism: Only God could make it. Miracles are a must on the road to sainthood.

What has struck me about the Chilean rescue has in a sense been the opposite: the capacity of human beings using reason,technology,discipline,unity,hard work and conviction to overcome odds and produce an inspiring outcome.

This was a case of “blood,toil,tears and sweat,” as the conservative Chilean president,Sebastián Piñera,has acknowledged by going to Churchill’s Cabinet War Rooms during a London visit. These are earthly qualities,the stuff of marathons,not miracles. Yes,there was luck. Yes,the faith of Piñera and the miners was important. But this was not “a transgression of a law of nature”; it was human nature in its highest expression.

More than all the global contributions — the food and exercise regime from NASA,the UPS-speeded delivery of drills,the Oakley sunglasses,the offers of Greek vacations (don’t Greeks need their cash?) — it was the withholding of one gift that was particularly revealing. The donated iPods were not sent down to the miners for fear they would prove isolating and break the life-saving camaraderie of “Los 33.” Salvation can still depend on seeing those around you.

Throughout the rescue,a couple of incidents kept returning to my mind,one in Chile,one in Europe.

Watching a free nation united behind Chile’s first conservative leader since the end of military rule in 1990,I thought of the dark days I witnessed there,particularly the terrifying,jack-booted aftermath of the 1986 assassination attempt on General Augusto Pinochet. Across Latin America,the transformation since the Cold War’s end has been uplifting,however great the enduring difficulties.

I also thought often of little Alfredo Rampi,the six year old Italian boy who in 1981 fell down a well. As in Chile,an earthquake preceded the accident. As in Chile,a nation was riveted,in the case of “Alfredino” by his crying in the depths. But there the similarities ended. Alfredo,initially,was just 36 meters down. Disarray characterised the Italian rescue attempt. A swing-like wooden plank lowered to bring him up got stuck. A parallel tunnel got blocked. A rescuer,suspended upside-down,got a hand to him but Alfredo kept slithering. And on the third day he died.

With today’s technology,such an outcome seems unthinkable. Even then,it resulted from a disunity to which Chile never succumbed.

The real Chilean “miracle” was man-made. It lay in the redemptive solidarity displayed — below ground,by rescuers at the site and on a global level — at a time of shrieking polarisation in the United States,rampant self-obsession and persistent division. I raise a glass to that — of Rolling Rock beer whose mysterious “33” on the bottle may refer to the year Prohibition was ended or to some deeper,unifying mystery.

-Roger Cohen