The wheel of time turns, all things begin, and all things end. To the end of the beginning we return, and when we look back, what have we learned.
What lessons have we learned, are we better for it?
When 9/11 happened, I was staying home ill. Early in the morning, I received a phone call from my Dad, he was in Hawai’i on a business trip (this was when I was still living in California) he asked to speak to my Mom, and when I told him she was still asleep, he told me to wake her up. I awoke my Mother, handed her the phone, and began to walk away. She snapped awake with the news that had happened. For the rest of the day, the television was on with news about the coverage of the attacks, the fall of the Twin Towers, the attack at the Pentagon, and Flight 93. These events have now been scarred into the National consciousness. For America, the world would be a different place.
A time for mourning, a time of sorrow, and a time to grieve.
For a time, there was a sense of national unity, a coming together in our common grief. But even in the first few days of the attack, the voices of wrath began to emerge:
“The nation has been invaded by a fanatical, murderous cult. And we welcome them. We are so good and so pure we would never engage in discriminatory racial or ‘religious’ profiling. People who want our country destroyed live here, work for our airlines, and are submitted to the exact same airport shakedown as a lumberman from Idaho. This would be like having the Wehrmacht immigrate to America and work for our airlines during World War II. Except the Wehrmacht was not so bloodthirsty…Airports scrupulously apply the same laughably ineffective airport harassment to Suzy Chapstick as to Muslim hijackers. It is preposterous to assume every passenger is a potential crazed homicidal maniac. We know who the homicidal maniacs are. They are the ones cheering and dancing right now. We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war.”
When this was uttered on September 13, 2001, few knew the implications of such a statement. Soon after, we went to war, first in Afghanistan, and then Iraq. The Afghan war expanded into Pakistan, we have bombed Yemen, and there has been seemingly unending rumors of the possibility of war with Iran. We set up prisons for “enemy combatants” in Guantanamo Bay and in Europe, and we shipped other “enemy combatants” to other countries to be interrogated with “enhanced interrogation techniques.” Muslims in America have had violence done against them. All the while, people on various points of the political spectrum invoke 9/11 in some way or another to justify a policy.
The violence began.
Often I have heard that we are a Christian Nation. What does that mean? Do we forgive others, give help to the poor, comfort the lonely, visit prisoners, feeding the hungry, and loving one another. A Christian Nation ought to be a reflection of the Kingdom of Heaven, God’s realm. But we actually do very little of that, for ourselves, and for each other. It doesn’t happen at the local, state, or national level either. Can we love our enemies, can we forgive the wrong wrought on us, can we pray for those who hurt us, can we love one another, can we recognize that each person is a child of God, can we see someone who isn’t like us and behold them as our brother and sister, can we work towards justice and peace without dropping a single bomb, firing a bullet, or using violence, and can we make Heaven a place on Earth and usher in a new creation? If we do this, then we can move forward into the future knowing that the memory of those who have died, not only on 9/11 but all those who have died in response to it, friend and foe alike, has not been tarnished by wrath and fear. Someone far wiser than I said this:
“Anger and wrath, these also are abominations, yet a sinner holds on to them. The vengeful will face the Lord’s vengeance, for he keeps a strict account of their sins. Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has done, and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray. Does anyone harbor anger against another, and expect healing from the Lord? If someone has no mercy towards another like himself, can he then seek pardon for his own sins? If a mere mortal harbors wrath, who will make an atoning sacrifice for his sins? Remember the end of your life, and set enmity aside; remember corruption and death, and be true to the commandments. Remember the commandments, and do not be angry with your neighbor; remember the covenant of the Most High, and overlook faults.” (Ecclesiasticus 27:30-28:7)
Let us be united in love, and move forth in forgiveness. Let us remember our sorrows, our pain, and our loss, and use those memories to fulfill the highest call possible, forgiveness and reconciliation. Can we love our enemies as ourselves? Can we love one another? All of this is truly possible if we forgive others.
