9/11 - Remembering

Today is a day to remember the terrible events that happened thirteen years ago.  St. Anthony Shrine in downtown Boston, has created a banner listing the names of the all the victims.  The Franciscan Friars have it hung in front of the Shrine, making    It a wall of rememberance.  I have watched people stop, read the names; some stop at a particular name, and offer a prayer.  I have gone up and touched the wall, and feel different; feel the presence of the Spirit, as I offer my prayer for the victims and their families.

"Enternal rest unto them all, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them."

A 2011 Reflection On The Tenth Anniversary of 9/11.

“Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight. The vengeful will suffer the Lord’s vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail. Forgive your neighbor’s injustice, then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.” (Sirach 27: 30-28:2)

 “Peter approached Jesus and asked him, ‘Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive? As many as seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times?’” (Matthew 18: 21-22)


Some may say it is ironic, others would say it is the Spirit of God speaking to us; that the above readings were part of the Liturgy of the Word for the Eucharist celebrated today; September 11th.

It has been 10 years since the terrorist attacks on this country, ten years since we saw the World Trade Center in New York, ablaze and then collapsing into a large heap of rubble. Ten years since we saw the Pentagon on fire, with wounded victims walking across its lawn. Ten years since we saw a smouldering hole in a Pennsylvania field, where an airplane whose passengers had struck back against the terrorists, had crashed. And ten years since we saw crowds in the Palestinian territories and other Arab countries dancing in the streets over the attacks.

There was much grief over the deaths of the victims, sadness for the victim’s families, and anger at the terrorists and those who support them. This desire for vengeance; the desire, the need, to strike back has involved us in two wars which are still being fought. It has created an atmosphere of fear and suspicion of anyone who is of different culture or different faith. We live in a country where Arabic-American citizens are looked upon with suspicion, where hate crimes against Muslims are on the rise.
Against this background, we have the above readings ringing in our ears, prodding us, challenging us to let go of our hatreds, to learn to forgive. And this is not easy, but to follow Jesus is never easy. God calls us to forgive, not for the good of those who harmed us, but for our own salvation. The longer we let hatred fester within us, the easier it will be for us to lose the power to love as Christ has commanded us to love.
So let us accept the challenge, let us begin to cultivate forgiveness in our hearts, so that love will ultimately blossom across the world.

9/11 - Religious Tolerance: My September Fraternity Newsletter Column

“Secular Franciscans are called to make their own contribution, inspired by the person and message of Saint Francis of Assisi, towards a civilization in which the dignity of the human person, shared responsibility, and love may be living realities.

They should deepen the true foundations of universal kinship and create a spirit of welcome and an atmosphere of fraternity everywhere. They should firmly commit themselves to oppose every form of exploitation, discrimination, and exclusion and against every attitude of indifference in relation to others.” (Article 18: 1-3; General Constitutions of the Secular Franciscan Order)

We are gathering as a fraternity on September 11, 2010. 9/11, not since December 7th, 1941, has a date had such an impact on the psyche of our nation. It has been 9 years since that tragic day, and we are now beginning to see more signs of what the media has been calling “Islamophobia.” The desire of some American Muslims to build an Islamic cultural center near what has been called “Ground Zero,” has touched a raw nerve, which has set ablaze a wave of anti-Islamic anger and attacks. Not only in New York City, but in other communities, people have been protesting even the legitimate building of Islamic centers or mosques.

We Catholics should remember that is not that long ago that anti-Catholic sentiment swept the nation. Catholics were restricted on where to build churches. Any Catholic was thought to owe their allegiance to a foreign leader (the Pope); and therefore not a true American. Even during the colonial days of Massachusetts, a Catholic, Baptist, a Quaker could be whipped, even hung for their beliefs. It was to defend religious minorities from the intolerance of the religious majority, expressed through the State, for which the First Amendment was made to the Constitution.

In Francis’s day, for a Christian knight to kill a Muslim was considered an honor, and vice versa. When Francis approached the Sultan’s camp, unarmed, with love in his heart, his goal was to end the killing by converting the Muslim army. He failed, but he earned the respect of the Sultan by his courteous approach. It is this example that we need to emulate, whenever we encounter our Muslim brothers and sisters. It is time that we stop this hate that is gripping our country. It is time for us to be true instruments of peace.

9/11 Remembrance and Reflection

September 11th, 9/11, 911; this is a date that will live in our memories, like December 7th lives in the memories of my father’s generation. On that day, I was in my company’s office, listening to my radio when I heard the report of a plane crashing into one of the World Trade Center Towers. I assumed that it was a small plane, as the morning wore on and the stories came in more frequently, we all realized that something worse was happening. I remember looking out of our office window down at a building that had flat screen televisions, showing the news. People were gathered in front, watching the story unfold, so many people that they spilled into the street. When I left my office later that day, the streets of Boston were almost empty. The following morning, waiting at the commuter train station, I looked up at the sky, and saw the thin contrails of fighter jets on patrol.

Other images I remember was the videos of the jets crashing into the Twin Towers. The images of people trapped in the flaming Towers, which soon collapsed. I remember the pictures of the skeletal remains of the Towers, still smoking, dust still in the air. The image of firefighters, police, and EMT’s carrying the lifeless body of Father Mychal Judge, OFM, from the wreckage. The image of a cross, made from the remains of the steel girders.

The United States changed that day, many of its citizens showing great courage. But also a dark side came out, Arab, Muslim citizens attacked verbally and physically. Arab emigrants detained. The country has entered unchartered waters, and the course some of our leaders has set, I fear will lead to further darkness. A country that decried the use of brutal interrogation methods and mistreatment of prisoners in the past has revealed using techniques that could only be called torture. And the majority of its citizens support this, as long as they are kept safe. The courage and valor of our soldiers and marines are inspiring, but we have been at war longer than at anytime in our history. The cost in blood, broken bodies and broken minds continues to grow.

On September 11th, 2009, I will go to St. Anthony Shrine, Boston, MA. There, in one of their chapels, the names of those who lost their lives on 9/11 will be read and remembered. In that chapel, I will pray for those who died on that terrible day; pray for those who lost a loved one that terrible day; pray for our country and the world, that peace will win out, and that light will beat back the darkness.

“Mindful that they (Secular Franciscans) are bearers of peace which must be built up unceasingly, they should seek out ways of unity and fraternal harmony through dialogue, trusting in the presence of the divine seed in everyone and in the transforming power of love and pardon.” (Art. 19a, Rule of the Secular Franciscan Order).