Homily
24th Sunday in Ordinary Time A
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
10th Anniversary of the Attacks of 9/11
11 September 2011
At the dawn, the very first year of the 21st century, an icon emerged that threatens to be the dominant image of humanity for an entire century - the falling of the World Trade Towers on September 11th, 2001. This is not an overstatement, at least not from our perspective in America, on the 10th anniversary of these horrendous attacks. Amidst the many tragedies and triumphs of our new century, many of which, including tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, wars, and yes, if we dare to admit it, abortion, that have claimed countless more lives than the 3000 lost on September 11th, still the memory of those towers collapsing, and the sheer evil that made such attacks possible, is the dominant image of the 21st century so far. The dominant image is one of moral evil, an evil that today as much as ever is strong enough to dominate man, to threaten his future, and to question his ultimate origin, the meaning of his life, and his final destiny.
But the image of evil is not the only icon that remains from 9/11. There is as well Body Bag 0001, the fallen hero Fr. Mychal Judge, a chaplain for the Fire Department of New York, who when he first heard of a plane hitting the World Trade Center, responded immediately to help. As we know well, first responders in droves came to help at the scene, most of them Catholics, and gave their lives trying to save someone else's. They fulfilled on that fateful day the beautiful words that Jesus said himself; no greater love has anyone than this, than to lay down one's life for one's friends. It was their job, but the courage and love with which they responded is a bulwark against the evil that threatened to dominate the day.
And people prayed. In the face of unthinkable evil, people acted with love and courage, and those of us unable to respond immediately in other ways, we prayed. These images of love and prayer may not be as dramatic as that image of evil, of those planes flying into the world trade center, an evil that changed the world forever, but they are images that small as they are, when added together, allowed the light to continue to shine through the darkness.
Our scriputure readings today challenge us to understand the uniqueness and depth of the mercy that Jesus Christ has revealed and made perfectly present in the world. Yes, you heard me right, the mercy of God is the most real thing in the world, and it is perfectly present here, because Jesus Christ has nailed the sins of the world to the Holy Cross, and He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. For a Christian, the suffering and death of Jesus Christ is an event in time, a day in history not unlike the events of 9/11, that forever changes the world. But for the Christian, the two events do not stand side by side. For the Christian, the suffering and death of Jesus Christ anticipates and swallows the events of 9/11, so that even when evil appears to have won the day, a Christian may not lose his faith, hope and love. Yes, you heard me right again, the suffering, death of Jesus Christ is for us a bigger event in history, the smaller as it were anticipating and swallowing the larger, so that when a Christian has every reason to lose faith, to lose hope, and to give up on love, the opposite happens. Because a Christian kisses the cross of Jesus Christ, and conforms his own life to the mystery of the cross, when something unthinkably evil happens, we immediately know that God is more present, not less present. We know that God never disappears in the face of evil, but even in the very heart of the mystery of evil, wants to be perfectly present there and to conquer that evil through love. Because the cross of Jesus Christ is an event in history that turned the world on its head forever, we know the victories of evil to be temporary and illusory, but that justice, mercy, goodness and peace are always stronger, and are the only things that can last forever.
Using the cross of Jesus to make sense of 9/11 is not a way for a Christian to gloss over the tragedy of 9/11, to call evil good and good evil, or to pretend like the pain of 9/11 was not really that bad. It is to do nothing of the sort. The response of a Christian to such evil is not to ignore it, or desensitize oneself to it. No, we know our hearts should be burning, that we are to reach out in love to console those who have lost someone they can never get back, and to mourn the senseless loss of so much goodness in the world. We are to help in any way we can, but also to join God in responding in hating pure evil with a perfect hate, and in resolving to fight more bravely against cowards who would use the name of God to slaughter the innocent. Yes, the events of 9/11 challenge us to preserve more intensely the goodness that still remains on earth, and to take care of those we love, while also hating evil more perfectly.
Yet what truly makes Christians unique is the mercy that Jesus taught us, and revealed most perfectly in the mystery of his own life. Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. Forgive seventy times seven times. If we do not know and live this mercy of Jesus precisely, we do not deserve to be called Christians. It is not enough for a Christian to hate evil perfectly, he must also forgive his enemies from the heart, and in the face of evil, to resolve to move closer to God and to his enemies in love, so that evil and hatred have fewer and fewer places in this world to grow and prosper. You do not have to be a Christian to hate evil perfectly, but Christians are those uniquely called and helped by Jesus himself to ride into the face of evil and to conquer it with love.
The suffering and death of Jesus is an event that like 9/11 has changed the world forever. Jesus gives us the perspective that we need to live on not in fear and hatred, but with a more intense faith, hope and love, yes even in a world threatened by unthinkable evil. For Jesus teaches us that even as the battle against good and evil takes place in the ambiguous battle lines of Islam versus Christianity, East versus West, secularism versus fundamentalism, and countless other battle lines, our Lord remind us that the ultimate battle line between good and evil rides right through the human heart, in yours and in mine. At every Mass, we pray for an end to evil in the world around us, to be sure, but more personally, we pray for mercy for the evil we have done, and the good that we have failed to do. Jesus teaches us well where the ultimate source of evil is, not out there, but in here. He teaches us perfectly that to fail to forgive our brothers is to pass judgment on ourselves, to allow hatred and evil to have the final say in our hearts. In the memory of 9/11, let us say with God that the perpetrators of 9/11 have already had their victory, they have had their reward. But because of Jesus Christ, their victory is vanishing like smoke. Let us resolve as Christians to not give them a victory that they do not deserve. Let us always respond to greater evil with greater mercy and love, in imitation of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Amen.
24th Sunday in Ordinary Time A
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
10th Anniversary of the Attacks of 9/11
11 September 2011
For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
- from the prayers of the Chaplet for Divine Mercy
At the dawn, the very first year of the 21st century, an icon emerged that threatens to be the dominant image of humanity for an entire century - the falling of the World Trade Towers on September 11th, 2001. This is not an overstatement, at least not from our perspective in America, on the 10th anniversary of these horrendous attacks. Amidst the many tragedies and triumphs of our new century, many of which, including tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, wars, and yes, if we dare to admit it, abortion, that have claimed countless more lives than the 3000 lost on September 11th, still the memory of those towers collapsing, and the sheer evil that made such attacks possible, is the dominant image of the 21st century so far. The dominant image is one of moral evil, an evil that today as much as ever is strong enough to dominate man, to threaten his future, and to question his ultimate origin, the meaning of his life, and his final destiny.
But the image of evil is not the only icon that remains from 9/11. There is as well Body Bag 0001, the fallen hero Fr. Mychal Judge, a chaplain for the Fire Department of New York, who when he first heard of a plane hitting the World Trade Center, responded immediately to help. As we know well, first responders in droves came to help at the scene, most of them Catholics, and gave their lives trying to save someone else's. They fulfilled on that fateful day the beautiful words that Jesus said himself; no greater love has anyone than this, than to lay down one's life for one's friends. It was their job, but the courage and love with which they responded is a bulwark against the evil that threatened to dominate the day.
And people prayed. In the face of unthinkable evil, people acted with love and courage, and those of us unable to respond immediately in other ways, we prayed. These images of love and prayer may not be as dramatic as that image of evil, of those planes flying into the world trade center, an evil that changed the world forever, but they are images that small as they are, when added together, allowed the light to continue to shine through the darkness.
Our scriputure readings today challenge us to understand the uniqueness and depth of the mercy that Jesus Christ has revealed and made perfectly present in the world. Yes, you heard me right, the mercy of God is the most real thing in the world, and it is perfectly present here, because Jesus Christ has nailed the sins of the world to the Holy Cross, and He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. For a Christian, the suffering and death of Jesus Christ is an event in time, a day in history not unlike the events of 9/11, that forever changes the world. But for the Christian, the two events do not stand side by side. For the Christian, the suffering and death of Jesus Christ anticipates and swallows the events of 9/11, so that even when evil appears to have won the day, a Christian may not lose his faith, hope and love. Yes, you heard me right again, the suffering, death of Jesus Christ is for us a bigger event in history, the smaller as it were anticipating and swallowing the larger, so that when a Christian has every reason to lose faith, to lose hope, and to give up on love, the opposite happens. Because a Christian kisses the cross of Jesus Christ, and conforms his own life to the mystery of the cross, when something unthinkably evil happens, we immediately know that God is more present, not less present. We know that God never disappears in the face of evil, but even in the very heart of the mystery of evil, wants to be perfectly present there and to conquer that evil through love. Because the cross of Jesus Christ is an event in history that turned the world on its head forever, we know the victories of evil to be temporary and illusory, but that justice, mercy, goodness and peace are always stronger, and are the only things that can last forever.
Using the cross of Jesus to make sense of 9/11 is not a way for a Christian to gloss over the tragedy of 9/11, to call evil good and good evil, or to pretend like the pain of 9/11 was not really that bad. It is to do nothing of the sort. The response of a Christian to such evil is not to ignore it, or desensitize oneself to it. No, we know our hearts should be burning, that we are to reach out in love to console those who have lost someone they can never get back, and to mourn the senseless loss of so much goodness in the world. We are to help in any way we can, but also to join God in responding in hating pure evil with a perfect hate, and in resolving to fight more bravely against cowards who would use the name of God to slaughter the innocent. Yes, the events of 9/11 challenge us to preserve more intensely the goodness that still remains on earth, and to take care of those we love, while also hating evil more perfectly.
Yet what truly makes Christians unique is the mercy that Jesus taught us, and revealed most perfectly in the mystery of his own life. Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. Forgive seventy times seven times. If we do not know and live this mercy of Jesus precisely, we do not deserve to be called Christians. It is not enough for a Christian to hate evil perfectly, he must also forgive his enemies from the heart, and in the face of evil, to resolve to move closer to God and to his enemies in love, so that evil and hatred have fewer and fewer places in this world to grow and prosper. You do not have to be a Christian to hate evil perfectly, but Christians are those uniquely called and helped by Jesus himself to ride into the face of evil and to conquer it with love.
The suffering and death of Jesus is an event that like 9/11 has changed the world forever. Jesus gives us the perspective that we need to live on not in fear and hatred, but with a more intense faith, hope and love, yes even in a world threatened by unthinkable evil. For Jesus teaches us that even as the battle against good and evil takes place in the ambiguous battle lines of Islam versus Christianity, East versus West, secularism versus fundamentalism, and countless other battle lines, our Lord remind us that the ultimate battle line between good and evil rides right through the human heart, in yours and in mine. At every Mass, we pray for an end to evil in the world around us, to be sure, but more personally, we pray for mercy for the evil we have done, and the good that we have failed to do. Jesus teaches us well where the ultimate source of evil is, not out there, but in here. He teaches us perfectly that to fail to forgive our brothers is to pass judgment on ourselves, to allow hatred and evil to have the final say in our hearts. In the memory of 9/11, let us say with God that the perpetrators of 9/11 have already had their victory, they have had their reward. But because of Jesus Christ, their victory is vanishing like smoke. Let us resolve as Christians to not give them a victory that they do not deserve. Let us always respond to greater evil with greater mercy and love, in imitation of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Amen.
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