9/11

It happened on an ordinary morning. We were going about our normal routines. Children were in school. Shops were busy with the morning’s work. Hospitals were busy with the care of patients. It was an ordinary day, and we had the expectation that it would remain an ordinary day. It would not.

The first reports were inadequate. A plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. As I listened to the report on the radio in my car, I imagined it was a small twin-engine plane. Emerging from my car to make a pastoral visit, I thought little of the event. When I stepped into the hospital lobby, the TV was on. Then I saw it. There was a second plane, a second crash. Suddenly, it was obvious: this was no accident. Then came the reports of another plane crash at the Pentagon. There were rumors of an explosion at the State Department. A flight had crashed in a field in Pennslyvania. The country was under attack.

The horror of that day is difficult to express. Thousands died. Men and women jumped to their deaths to escape being burned to death. Children were killed in aircraft that were designed to take them quickly and safely to distant destinations. Flight attendants were killed with box cutters. For days after the attacks, cell phones could be heard ringing from the rubble with frantic phone calls from family members hoping to find their loved ones still alive. Rescue dogs, who were used to finding survivors, needed to be comforted because they were finding so few.

The word to describe how we felt was terror. Were there more planes? Would there be other, different kinds of attacks? Who was behind these attacks? We had long lived in a world where our powerful military and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans had kept us safe from the rest violence in the rest of the world. We imagined that would continue to be the case. We were wrong. The terrorism that had long been part of life in the Middle East had come to us, and we were unprepared.

On that terrible day, we learned about the nature of evil. Many of us have what some have called an “irrational belief in the rationality of others.” It is as if we believe that somehow if we simply understood each other, there would be no more strife between people or nations. This is a mistake. There are people who have extinguished any love in their souls. All that is remaining in them is hatred and the desire to destroy. They are a walking surrender to evil. The 19 terrorists who hijacked planes on 9/11 had given themselves over to evil. The evil in their hearts manifested itself in death and horror. We bore witnees to the fact that unchecked evil in the human heart yields destruction.

9/11 is not only about evil, however. On 9/11 we witnessed some of the best in humanity. Knowing full well that they would likely die, members of the FDNY rushed up staircases of the doomed buildings. Untold numbers of people are alive today because of their bravery. 344 of them gave their lives. One of them, a chaplain named Mychal Judge, went into the North Tower where an emergency command post had been established. He was praying for the first responders, the injured, and the dead. When the South Tower collapsed, debris flew through the North Tower lobby. Judge was struck in the head and died. The FDNY was not alone in its bravery. The NYPD, New Jersey Police and the Port Authority were exceptional on 9/11. 50 of them gave their lives.

Jesus once said the greatest love is to lay down one’s life for another. On 9/11 many first responders gave their lives, many others were injured. Others placed their lives in danger, giving no thought about themselves, but focused on their duty and those who were in danger. Their actions were witness to the fact that love is always more powerful than hate, good is always more powerful than evil, and that God will finally triumph over the evil in the hearts of humans.

As we remember the terrible images and relive the profound sadness of 9/11, it would be good to give thanks for those who demonstrated so much bravery and by their actions demonstrated that evil will finally be defeated.