My husband and I recently sat down and rented a movie to watch the other night, it was called "The Miracle Club," a movie staring Kathy Bates, Laura Linney and Maggie Smith. It was Maggie Smith that I wanted to see, having been a fan of hers for quite some time. I love the way she can bring humor to any situation just by the raising of her eyebrow.
But I also wanted to watch this movie out of curiosity for the premise. These women go off the France, each looking for a miracle at the Lourdes Shrine. Who writes movies about miracles at a Catholic shrine these days?
As it turns out, while the movie just came out in 2023, the story is over twenty years old, it's writers waiting for the right production company to produce it. I can totally understanding waiting that long to have my story produced to make sure it is done in the right way!
But after watching it I began reading reviews and one quote from a reviewer really hit me in a way that I felt about the movie. She said, "It’s not wrong to hope for a miracle, and that hope is beautiful on its own, but life isn’t about lunging for quick fixes. It’s more rewarding to pursue forgiveness even in the face of seemingly insurmountable hurt." (Jillian Cheney Religion Unplugged) And there was a lot of hurt between all these ladies in the movie and to me forgiveness and reconciliation was the miracle they were all unknowingly searching for. Something we sometimes take for granted in our sacrament of confession.
Many of us hope for miracles, even demand one in our own selfish pathetic ways when we have been hurt so deeply by things that happen in our lives, loved ones getting hurt or gone, dramatic health events or marriage problems. And we pray fervently for a miracle. Yet I have learned, as I have prayed for just such miracles in my life, that it's not in the miracle that you heal. You begin the healing with the journey along the way and sometimes you realize you have experienced a miracle but of a different sort than what you were asking or even expecting, just like these women realized.
The Miracle Club shows us no matter how old or young we are, how devout or disbelieving we can be, God has ways to show us what we really need, and that is reconciliation with Him and with others. And He offers us the peace that goes with that reconciliation too.
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