While loved ones were dying and while human strength was waning, the faith, the hope and the love of these young Uruguayan college athletes, barely 20 years old, was put to the ultimate test. And it is from that test in the Andes Mountains where the titanic struggle between life and death daily played out. For countless people who have been inspired by their story, the answer to Habakkuk’s question came to light.
That answer, which escapes so many souls, has something to do with what Pope St. Gregory the Great said over a thousand years after Habakkuk penned his question. The saintly pontiff said, “Virtue acts quietly but the reputation of virtue is stirred up by the whip.” That is to say, adversity reveals what the human spirit is capable of with God’s help. It is in the reputation of virtue that helps others in their quest to overcome their own problems.
Troubling? Yes! Painful? Absolutely! But it is true, nevertheless, to say that some are called to suffer so that others may have life (cf. II Corinthians 4:12). This is the love of Christ at its best.
As for the 16 survivors of Flight 571, the 72 days in the Andes revealed not only their character and heroism but invaluable insights into the mysteries of life and death. After all, the centerpiece of this story is one of a real and palpable communing with God on the mountain. At 29,500 feet, on that cold and lifeless mountain, there was nothing! No food. No shelter, other than the fuselage. But there was God. And to be sure, they would experience that God in new and profound ways.
If truth be told, it was the faith of the survivors that was the underlying key to their survival. One of the survivors who journeyed ten days out of the mountains to get help was Roberto Canessa. For him, his faith sustained him through it all. In a 1974 interview, he said, “Up in the mountains I wondered ‘How would I get out of here?’ and I always answered myself ‘I have God with me, he’s my friend and he’s the owner of the mountain.’” From October 13th, the day of the crash, to December 20th, when the first sign of help was spotted, was a time when the Catholic upbringing of 16 Uruguayan rugby players came face to face with their own mortality.
The Flight, the Crash, the Andes
On October 12, 1972, when 45 people boarded Flight 571, there was no premonition of what was to lie ahead. The rugby team, with some family members, was due to fly from Uruguay to Chile. But first, they stopped in Argentina. And on October 13th, they were scheduled to continue their flight from Argentina – around the Andes mountain range – to Chile. Fernando Parrado, one of two survivors who managed to climb out of the mountains to get help, said that death could not be further from his mind. He was once asked if he thought a lot about death. He responded: “Like any other people but when you have 18 or 19 year-old you play rugby, you are immortal, and all those things are far from you. I could have thought about it but not in a serious way.”
