Amazon Prime has released a new inspiring movie, A Million Miles Away, inspired by Jose Hernandez’s life. The opening minutes of the movie tell the early life story of Jose Hernandez, the son of migrant farming parents who were constantly on the move in order to work the land. A teacher of Jose became concerned for him because he shows great aptitude but the constant moving impacted his learning. The movie tells the story of how a migrant farm worker became an astronaut with NASA and joined a space mission. The answer: a lot of hard work.  The storyline of the movie develops from Jose’s dad, who had a recipe of ingredients for success. 

A Million Miles Away – Official Trailer 

5 Ingredients For Success From A Million Miles Away

The movie is phased by the unfolding of each ingredient:

1.     Find your goal

2.     Know how far you are

3.     Draw a roadmap

4.     If you don’t know how, learn

5.     When you think you’ve made it you probably have to work harder

Apply These To Your Spiritual Life

This recipe, while meant as a lesson for life, can also be applied to the spiritual life.  Read again the five ingredients.  Now, apply it spiritually.  This can be done in a variety of ways.  Here are a few examples. 

Find your goal:  Heaven.  How far am I?  I have a lot of work to do.  My roadmap: prayer, the sacraments, reading the scriptures, living the scriptures, living like Jesus.  What I don’t know, I can learn.  There is a wealth of information out there that can help me aim for holiness and heaven.  I can learn from the saints and their practices.  When I think I have it figured out, I really don’t, because then I need to grow in humility. 

How about another example:  Goal: Overcome gossip.  Know how far I’ve come: I can do that through an examination of conscience.  Draw a roadmap- Plan out how to respond in situations where it would be easy to gossip.  I can learn not to gossip by reading Ephesians 4:29.  Finally, not gossiping will be a lifelong chore because it will always be easy to fall back into. 

For Jose Hernandez, his goal was to be an astronaut.  Throughout his life, he knew what he had to do and he had to make extreme sacrifices and keep working at it, because time after time he was rejected by NASA.  Even when he joined NASA because of his determination, his work isn’t completed because there was much left to do. 

A Million Miles Away will inspire you to follow your dreams and aim for the stars, because Jose Hernandez literally did just that!  When you feel discouraged and want to give up, keep going.  Jose’s crazy story will surely inspire viewers to never give up. 

After you are done streaming the film, don’t stop before the credits, continue watching for special pictures from the family and life of Jose Hernandez.  If you want to toast to Jose Hernandez, you might do so with a glass of wine from his Tierra Luna Cellars.  

Can a Catholic Watch A Million Miles Away?

The movie poses no questions about morality or immoral content. 

Fr. Looney’s Rating

8/10- A story that inspires and gives us a recipe to achieve our dreams.