IN REMEMBRANCE
September 2002
Across America this past week, in churches, schools, public
places, and especially in the media, we have commemorated the
events of September 11, 2001. We need this time of remembrance
to heal the deep wounds and profound grief that this catastrophe
has inflicted upon the national soul as well as the individual
lives of those who are both intimately and vicariously affected.
The collective sharing of pain in a national crisis or disaster
is as ancient as Israel remembering Zion and the destruction
of the Temple, and in that remembering allowing God to create
a new order and bring redemption to God's people. The central
act of all Christian worship is an act of remembering in the
Sacrament of Holy Communion. We remember a death and a resurrection,
and there is a healing that comes upon us as we also remember
that God is with us, whether it be a cross or a falling tower.
Yad Vashem in Jerusalem is a memorial to the six million Jews
who perished in the Holocaust. It is a painful place to visit
as one is forced to confront the magnitude of evil that humans
can visit upon one another. And yet it is a necessary place to
visit. When Pope John Paul laid a wreath before the eternal flame,
he said:
Here, as at Auschwitz and many other places in Europe, we
are overcome by the echo of the heart-rending laments of so
many. Men, women and children cry out to us from the depths
of the horror that they knew. How can we fail to hear their
cry? No one can forget or ignore what happened. No one can
diminish its scale. We wish to remember. But we wish to remember
for a purpose, namely to ensure that never again will evil
prevail, as it did for the millions of innocent victims of
Nazism.
Every generation has had its bogeyman, its personification of
evil. Whether it's Napoleon, the Kaiser, Hitler, or Osama bin
Laden, we look for that one entity to represent the evil among
us. We create our devils upon which to focus our fears and our
wrath, and seek to objectify, and therefore exorcize, that which
corrupts the soul. Jesus had said that heaven is within each
of us, but so is hell. We have seen what evil is capable of.
We need to remember it. We need to be careful who and what we
demonize lest we become what we condemn. We also need to remember
that a loving God can lead us through the deep waters of life
and bring us to a new and better world.
We need to remember September 11, 2001. Having done that, we
need to move on, not forgetting the past, but building upon the
ashes of our yesterdays to forge a brighter tomorrow. We need
this national catharsis. Now let us move ahead to the future
to which God is calling us, equipped with what we have learned,
steadfast in our resolve, sure in our faith, secure in God's
love, and most of all, filled with the forgiveness, mercy and
compassion that is the special heritage of our humanity.
Dr. Harry L. Serio |