There are two words that get overused in time of tragedy, “hero” and “miracle.” Yet, both words seem legitimate in covering the US Airways emergency landing, mostly because they were part of direct quotes from people involved in the story.
A search of how journalists use the word miracle shows how tired the word can get. We write about “miracle drugs,” “miracle surgeries,” “miracle rescues,” “miracle hockey victories,” “Life’s Greatest Miracle.” There are ships named Miracle, there are even hearing aids called Miracle Ears. And there is a “Miracle Method” for bathtub refinishing.
Merriam-Webster’s offers this definition of miracle:
1: an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs
2: an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment
3 Christian Science: a divinely natural phenomenon experienced humanly as the fulfillment of spiritual law
So, a miracle is, according to two of these definitions, connected to belief in a divine act.
The Catholic Encyclopedia defines miracle:
(Latinmiraculum, from mirari, “to wonder”).
In general, a wonderful thing, the word being so used in classical Latin; in a specific sense, the Latin Vulgate designates by miracula wonders of a peculiar kind, expressed more clearly in the Greek text by the terms terata, dynameis, semeia, i.e., wonders performed by supernatural power as signs of some special mission or gift and explicitly ascribed to God.
The Catholic Church follows a process in order to confirm a miracle.
