The cords of death encompassed me;
the snares of the netherworld seized upon me;
I fell into distress and sorrow,
And I called upon the name of the LORD,
“O LORD, save my life!”
For those of us old enough to remember, seared into our memories is precisely where we were when we heard of the fateful tragedies that struck our country on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
I was preparing for morning Mass at Holy Family Cathedral and had just turned on the Today show only to hear the announcement that a plane had struck one of the towers of the World Trade Center in New York. In a matter of minutes, our Nation and world would never be the same as we witnessed the raw horror of towers collapsing, the Pentagon on fire and people running for dear life from the White House and the Capitol.
With over 500 children arriving in a matter of minutes to begin the school day, I called the principal and instructed to have all the children, teachers and staff, gather in the Cathedral for Mass. I will never forget the silence that preceded that Mass. As I began my homily, I could see the terror in the eyes of many of the children who knew instinctively the unspeakable horror and emotion of this moment. The rest is history that is now lovingly remembered twenty years later.
Providentially, God’s Holy Word on this Sunday following the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, speaks of Isaiah’s mysterious ‘suffering servant’ who sacred tradition has pointed to Jesus himself who would take on the sins of the world in loving redemption.
My friends, God in our Christ is not impervious to human suffering. Jesus himself would weep at the death of his beloved friend, Lazarus, so connected in empathy to the human family. Jesus wept on 9/11 and in the face of the cruel and inhuman suffering that has so tragically marked the journey of humanity down through the centuries. And Jesus continues to walk with those whose lives were irreparably scarred on that dark day as loved ones perished in an instant.
As the Body of Christ, we are called to embrace our broken world with the same empathy as the one whose name we bear. St. James today challenges us to demonstrate the integrity of our faith by doing good works and not just giving lip-service to the Gospel of Life. That ministry begins by sharing the burdens of our neighbor as we accompany them through our words of consolation and deeds of mercy and justice.
To remember is to make present. As we remember this weekend all whose lives were forever changed that fateful day in September, twenty years ago, may we renew our commitment to be instruments of God’s mercy, justice and peace in a world that cries out, still, for healing.