Let us remember, heal, learn, choose, and act.

Remembering

Any of us over thirty years old remembers where we were on September 11, 2001. Like our elders who remember Pearl Harbor and President Kennedy’s assassination, current generations will always be marked by that infamous day.
Evil became visible that day. We saw its face in the terrorists.
We saw its deadly scars on 2,819 innocent people and their loved ones.
We have watched its echoes across a score of years that have become more vigilant and less trusting.
Besides the victims in the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, so much else died on September 11th. Innocence died; universal trust died; unconditional acceptance died. And with their loss, our national soul was put in jeopardy.

Healing
But within a few hours of the attacks, we saw the human spirit raise its head. Acts of
tremendous courage, love, support, and generosity became the new face of September 11th. A dormant patriotism was unfurled in millions of flags across America. Who will ever forget how KIND we became to one another when faced with the reality of one another’s loss.

Learning
And so, all indications to the contrary, we learn even from the darkest evil. Throughout history, good people have learned from bad things. Consider these magnanimous leaders:

The Holocaust:

In spite of everything, I still believe that people are truly good at heart….that
this cruelty too will end…

Anne Frank, who died in a Nazi concentration camp

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War:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final
sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Forces, World War II

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Institutionalized Slavery:

I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.

Harriet Tubman, formerly enslaved woman who navigated the ‘Underground Railroad

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Choosing
What have we learned from September 11th and who will we choose to be as a result of our learning? All of us want a better world for ourselves and for our children. We want less fear and more trust. We want less struggle and more peace. We want less tension and more
freedom. What we want will never come to us unless we choose to live it into being.
Leading such change requires great bravery. Mahatma Gandhi said this, A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.

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Acting
So, on this 22nd Commemoration of September 11th, let us be brave enough to change the world. Courage and kindness stand side by side because they both require self-sacrifice. As a way of healing and remembering, perhaps we could do one act of anonymous, unrewarded kindness.
Do it to make the world kinder, to contribute to a legacy for the future, to send a message that evil never triumphs, and to honor the lives that were lost on September 11, 2001.

Some ideas that won’t cost you much (from helpothers.org):

• Treat someone to a cup of their favorite coffee
• Pay the toll for the person behind you
• Write a note of appreciation to someone
• Smile from your heart when you meet people.
• Greet others when you pass them.
• Buy flowers for someone who is having a rough time.
• Call someone who lost a friend or beloved recently
• Leave a good book out for others.
• Instead of following normal tipping etiquette, leave a little extra.
• Be kind to someone who isn’t always kind to you.
• Pay someone’s expired parking meter.
• If you experience great service, compliment the worker and tell their manager.
• Give sincere compliments whenever you can.
• Leave the coupons you didn’t use at the register for someone else.
• Spend time with people who might be lonely and just need to talk.

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Sunday, September 11, 2022

Almost all of us over 25 or 30 years old remember where we were this day twenty-one years ago. We remember the horrifying scenes, the crushing sadness, the swelling anger, the hardening resolve.

Over these years, we have remembered again and again the innocent lives lost and hearts shattered. 

We have remembered, with a never-to-be-reclaimed nostalgia, a world of unguarded and comfortable safety.

Understandably, the memories have left many of us smaller, harder and meaner.

A question for our reflection today might be this. How do we remember inflicted pain in a way that makes us:

• determined not vengeful
• wise not judgmental
• resilient not fearful
• united not isolated 

We must do this because to do otherwise is to be consumed by the hatred that our enemy has heaped on us. And that would allow evil its victory.

So, on this solemn day, let us never forget. 

But let us remember with reverence, hope, faith, and love – and the unquenchable strength these engender. Let us remember with a grace that ennobles our loss, letting it empower rather than weaken us.

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Music: In a Peaceful Valley (The Dance of Innocents)
~ Peter Kater & Nawang Khechog

Pray with this beautiful music and allow it to bless, heal, and release the sacred power of your memories for the healing of our world.

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September 11, 2001
A Twentieth Commemoration

This is a day of painful and dark remembrance, a day we remember all those who died on 9/11 and all who have died since in the forces of terror unleashed that day. 

On September 11, 2001, the world lost so much, the dearest of which were the nearly 3000 innocent lives taken in an evil instant.

Think of those thousands of people who left home on a beautiful morning just like this one.  They expected to see their loved ones again but never would.  Think of those co-workers sitting beside one another, those passengers on the fated planes, who never realized they were speaking a last word to each other.  

Remembering them, we might be moved not to leave unspoken that word of gratitude, compassion, forgiveness or love that we would put off until later.  We might look into people’s eyes, to smile and offer a greeting. We might notice a need otherwise overlooked; we might realize that the people around us are precious and fragile. Every life is so delicate.  In an instant it can disappear.  

As the years have passed, we have understood that so many precious things were injured or died that day:

• the joy and dreams of bereaved families
• the ensuing health of first responders
• the spontaneity to believe in and trust each other
• the freedom and security to be in our world without fear

Still, although this is a somber anniversary, we can use it to motivate ourselves positively.  We can make a choice today to do something for light and peace. It is only when we see others as objects that we can injure, curse and kill them.  When we see others as persons — children of God like ourselves — we are moved to act with kindness, patience and forgiveness.  

Deny those who tried to fill our country and hearts with fear and darkness.  Always and ever, deny them what they tried to do!

Let this solemn anniversary make us persons of greater light.

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The prayer of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Keep us, O God, from all pettiness.
Let us be large in thought, in word, in deed.
Let us not be faultfinders
and keep us from self-absorption.
May we put away all pretense
and meet each other truly face to face,
without self-pity and without prejudice.
Grant that we may realize
that it is the little things of life
that create differences,
that in the big things of life
we are all the same.

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Music: Da Pacem Domine – Arvo Pärt

Da pacem, Domine in diebus nostris
Quia non est alius
Qui punnet pro nobis
Nisi tu Deus noster.

Grant peace, O Lord, in our time.
for there is none else
who would make a way for us
if not You, O God.