The miracles of Haiti

The press has been full of the word ‘miracle’ recently. Stories about people being found alive in the rubble of Haiti – nine, ten, even 14 days after the earthquake. When confronted with such unexpected events the reaction even of the most cynical is to exclaim: ‘It’s a miracle!’

The skill and determination of the rescue teams who succeeded in digging people alive from the rubble days after the quake restore one's faith in humanity, and for one man at least, also in God.

A combined Mexican and South African team managed to save a woman who had been buried for a week in the collapsed house of the late Archbishop of Port au Prince. After the rescue the Mexican team-leader talked about how the Mexicans and 'our brothers from South Africa' had worked together to locate and reach the trapped woman.

He then added that, when he held her hand, she squeezed it and called him 'son' and that he felt as though he was holding the hand of God.

Certainly it seems right to call the finding of the woman a miracle. But we should not also overlook the second miracle – that of the Mexican rescuer encountering the presence of God.

In the face of such disaster, the actions of individuals, their quiet selflessness and their personal courage are as much a miracle as the headline grabbing stories of people rescued.

One Jesuit brother was talking to the BBC about his team's work at one of the remoter areas, well outside the capital.

On arrival, it was clear that this area which was completely flattened had received absolutely no outside help. The medical team found people suffering from terrible injuries, including many serious fractures, which had been untreated for seven days. 'Seven days!' he repeated in a tone of astonishment and anguish.

The brother then used a phrase to the reporter that is the most terrible yet powerful quotation I have heard from the Haiti disaster zone: 'They triaged themselves'.

In other words, the people themselves organised the injured into the three groups necessitated by battlefield or disaster-zone conditions where medical help is limited – those who will not survive and can only be kept comfortable, those who will survive if treated urgently, and the less seriously injured who can and must wait.

Despite the news reports creating the perception of widespread violence and looting, the experience of the Jesuit brother, particularly in this place, was one of immense human dignity under the most terrible of circumstances. He was clearly in awe of the heroic behaviour of ordinary Haitian communities in a situation which most people would have found completely intolerable.

Inevitably, some people have been driven by hunger and desperation to selfishness, anxious to save themselves and their families ignoring the needs of others around them. But this was a group of people who did not automatically put themselves first. 'They triaged themselves!'

This is a message that the Gospel can teach to the world: “Greater love has no one than this than to lay down their life for a friend.”

It is hard enough to say in the relative comfort of Johannesburg. How much harder must it be to say in a situation as extreme as Haiti. To experience God-with-us in the devastation and death of an earthquake-shattered city is extraordinary.