Thoughts & Homilies

Reflections on September 11
September, 2001

Although it happened almost two weeks ago, and has been replayed again and again on TV,
the newspapers and magazines and talk shows have been focused on little else,
the tragedy of September 11,
still seems surreal,
like a bad dream or the plot for some action film.

But it is not.

It really happened,
and as the reality begins to sink in,
we are faced with so many questions, so much confusion.
Like,
"Where was God?"
"How could God let this happen?"

Well, I can tell you where God was.

God was right there
in the midst of it all
in the planes, in the buildings, in the rubble.
There is no place where God is not.
Even in the thick of the tragedy,
God was right there
with every person who died.
God was unfailingly present with each one
and received them with great love and compassion.
I can say this is true,
because that is the nature of God.
It has nothing to do with the goodness or badness of any individual.
Human beings cannot possibly earn or even deserve the presence of God.
It is a given.

In the scriptures, Jesus tells us,
"I will never leave you or forsake you"
"Whoever sees me, sees the Father"
"I go to prepare a place for you. If it were not so, I would not tell you."

God was right there.
And I know what God was doing -
sustaining, comforting, strengthening, healing,
fulfilling creation in every way possible.
God was right there
inspiring every act of kindness,
every sacrifice
every deed of courage.

The terrible deed done to so many innocent people
was not an act of God,
nor did it bring glory or honor to God
in any sense.
It was an act of terrorism
brought about by the people who so misunderstand the world God created
and God's purpose for the world.
They believed they could use human beings for their own ends
as if they were things
like boxes or scraps of wood.

To be truly human
means to nurture, support and revere God's creation,
not destroy it.
This was not a "holy war"
This was not a "holy" deed
in any sense of the word.
It was the work of fanatics
self defined interpreters of the scriptures,
an act of hatred and terror.

This was NOT God's will.

God does not use terrorists to communicate with us.

God does not kill thousands of people
in order to get our attention or to stop our bad behavior.

God is not mad at us
because we are capitalists
or because our values are weak
or because we don't go to church
or mosque
or synagogue.

I believe that Jesus Christ died 200 years ago
to tell us that
nothing
can separate us
from the love of God.

God is not in the business
of thinking up uniquely painful punishments
for wayward human beings.

Having said all this,
what can our readings teach us?
We are a wealthy nation
and the prophet Amos reminds us today
that with wealth comes responsibility.
How we deal with our riches matters a great deal to God.
"The Lord hears the cry of the poor"
is something we often sing on Sunday,
but what happens
on Mondays
as our shops open
and we return to our place of business?
Are we Christians there
as we are here?

It has been good
to see the sudden surge of patriotism
in our country these last two weeks.
Everywhere we look there are flags.
We are proud of our country
and we have many reason to be,
especially as we have witnessed
so many acts of heroism
during this disaster.
But Saint Paul reminds us today
that God wills that everyone be saved!
We are proud to be Americans
but we must remember
that God loves the whole world, and
that the victims of this tragedy
were from more than sixty countries,
many nationalities,
many religions.

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