Reverend Jerry Gallagher
Dear Friends, it has been ten years since the tragedy of 9/11 has been soldered in our minds and hearts. It was such a beautiful September morn. Then the first plane hit the World Trade Center, then a second. Then the Pentagon. While in Pennsylvania, courageous passengers saved others’ lives and lost their own. It was a day from hell.
But it was also a day in which we saw remarkable courage, God’s love enfleshed, in the extraordinary dedication of so many people. The firemen, policemen and emergency medical workers who lost their lives running up the stairs to rescue people desperately trying to escape. They showed us a self-sacrificing love so strong that we will never forget them. We have also heard the heartfelt stories of people whose love was stronger than their fear, who stopped and helped carry down the injured 60, 80, 90 flights of stairs. We saw countless examples of deep compassion. And after that, rescue workers coming from all over the country to help. People waiting for hours to give blood. So much genuine love. And it continued with rescue workers risking their own health digging through the site to give some comfort to family members who had suffered loss. St. Paul’s chapel, which remained standing amid the rubble, became a beacon of hope and tremendous compassion. That place will for ever be a memorial to the power of God’s love.
What have we learned from this horrible tragedy? Where do we go from here? The courage and compassion we have seen call all of us to live more dedicated lives. One worker whose health was seriously compromised after months of working at the site, and who now has trouble breathing, said that, given the choice, he would do it all again. That kind of courage is humbling.
Perhaps the second lesson is that we have learned to live each day with thanksgiving. A holy person once said, “Love as though you are going to live forever, and live each day as though it was going to be your last.” Each day is a gift. We have heard family members describe last calls from the Trade Center. “I’m not going to make it. Please, just know how much I love you.” “Take good care of the kids.” “Tell Mom and Dad I love them very much.” So often on our journey, we get caught up in stuff, stuff that really doesn’t matter that much. Trying to get ahead, have more or fancier things. Living our lives on a treadmill that keeps us from really appreciating one another. This tragedy has been a startling call to see what is really important and make necessary changes. May we truly love as though we are to live forever and live each day as though it will be our last.
We’ve also experienced a much deeper sense of our unity. Not only the bond we share as Americans, but even more profoundly our unity as members of the human family. We witnessed memorial services held throughout the world. We saw their sadness and felt their love. People from many nations and religious traditions perished in the World Trade Center. May we all learn a true tolerance and never scapegoat any group. We must learn a deeper tolerance because one of the most insidious things about the attack is that it was made in the name of God. Killing in God’s name is ultimate blasphemy. This time it was a small radical group of Muslim fundamentalists. But in past history, Christians have also killed in the name of God in pogroms, inquisitions and crusades. We pray that this will never happen again, that God’s name will be honored by reverence for one another, and not by killing.
We have also learned in a deeper way the reality of violence. Our society is saturated with images of violence. Our children witness it on T.V. and play violent games with such abandon, that they become desensitized to it. And we as a society seem to accept it as a way of life. A few days after 9/11 happened, I read the story of two teenagers who set a man on fire. They said they meant no harm. They were just trying to have fun. Wow. Perhaps this event will motivate us to demand change, not only in what the media presents, but in our relations with one another. We must treat people with greater reverence and respect, for we are all children of God. So we gather together this morning for commemoration, with a shared grief, but also with an undying resiliant hope. We know in faith that God is truly with us. He has shown us by sharing our life, by giving his life for us on that cross where Jesus suffered such agony and abandonment. And all for love of us. We know in faith that God suffers with us. He was in those burning buildings, with the Pentagon workers, on flight 93, as God was present with the Jewish people in the concentration camps, and wherever there is human hurt.
And we also witnessed God’s love enfleshed in the heroes who gave their lives that others might be saved. This morning we gather around a table to share the food that brings us more deeply to the Lord and to one another. We pray that we will live each day with a generous spirit, and caring hearts. That we will know something of that peace that God promises us, a peace which the world cannot give.
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