For a miracle to happen, do you need to believe it? The new film “Henry Poole Is Here” tries to get at that question. Luke Wilson portrays the title character, a sad man suffering from a terminal disease, who moves into the California suburb where he grew up. Henry withdraws into his new home. He just wants to be left alone to wallow in his depression and impending, too-soon demise. But God, clearly, has other plans. Through the stubborn love of several women who barge into his life, Henry, in spite of himself, begins to come back to life. A very wise man once told me that he sees grace most easily and most powerfully in women. They are natural vessels of grace, and mothers, who pour out unconditional love-agape, as the Greeks called it-are the first experience of grace most of us have in this life. In that way, Henry is bombarded by grace, but continues to struggle against it.

(Cathleen Falsani is a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and author of “The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People.”)