“Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.” (Sirach 28:2)
On this 20-year anniversary of 9/11, one of the darkest days in our nation’s history, I would like us all to reflect on these words of scripture from the Book of Sirach and to decide where we are in terms of our ability to forgive grievous acts directed toward us, our country, or even our Church.
Twenty years ago I was sitting in my office in the Pentagon – and had just witnessed the second plane crashing through the World Trade Center on television news – when I heard a loud explosion and saw a fireball reflected outside my window. I thought someone had exploded a bomb, not knowing that a plane had flown into the Pentagon. It was a day of great terror but also of great sacrifice and heroics by those who helped the injured, by police and fire responders, and by concerned individuals who stepped in to help others.
I made my way to the center of the building and into the courtyard, and after a while I and others were led outside into the parking lot. From there, we ran to Crystal City, Va., away from the Pentagon parking lot, as we heard that another airplane was on its way to Washington, D.C. (this was the plane that was taken down by the passengers over Pennsylvania). We were in a panic.
Sometime later I learned that the nose of the plane ended up in the basement of the Pentagon directly under my third-floor office. If the plane had not hit the ground and bounced before striking the building, I would not be alive today, along with hundreds more in the Pentagon.
We lost several coworkers and others I had known personally, and thinking about why they died and I lived bothered me for the first few months after the incident. Some people said, “Why did God kill so many people that day?” The response is that God killed no one on 9/11; it was the free will of men filled with hate and revenge that killed the people on 9-11. Revenge added to hate is like gasoline poured on a fire – it makes the fire burn hotter.
It took me a long time to get in touch with my feelings about the men who did this horrible act and about the men who backed them and rejoiced over the carnage. I could either go on hating them for their actions, or I could pray for their conversion from their misguided teachings. The Book of Sirach tells us: “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.” (Sir 27:30-28:1).
Jesus teaches us in Matthew’s Gospel that our heavenly Father will pay each of us back for our misdeeds unless we forgive our brothers and sisters from our hearts (Mt 18:35). We should take some time to try to understand this teaching. The story in Matthew 18 tells us that God forgave the greater debt, as illustrated by the king forgiving the servant a huge amount – one that was impossible for the servant to pay back. This same servant, upon being asked to forgive a fellow servant’s debt of a smaller amount, refused to do so.
Jesus erased all of our sins on the cross and has forgiven us by His holy sacrifice. Should we do any less for those who have wronged us? As Catholic Christian men and women, boys and girls – people of God – we need to examine our feelings toward those who harm us or who do harm to others. We do not have to tolerate the terrible actions of others, but as the priest in my childhood parish always said, “Hate the sin and not the sinner.”
One example of profound forgiveness that I will never forget is that of Bud Welch. His 23-year-old daughter, Julie Marie, was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995, that killed 167 people. For the first few months after Julie Marie’s death, Welch was filled with rage against those who had done it. He started drinking and getting himself more and more worked up while having feelings of revenge against Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the accused bombers. Then one day, he felt his life was out of control and he had to do something about it because he recognized that what he had been doing up to that point had done him absolutely no good whatsoever. He remembered that Julie Marie had been against the death penalty. So he started thinking about how his daughter, a Catholic and daily communicant, would have reacted, and his feelings of anger started to change. He realized that Tim McVeigh had done this act out of hatred and revenge for what McVeigh saw as the government’s “erroneous” actions at Waco, Texas, on April 19, 1993, when 82 Branch Davidians and four ATF agents lost their lives.
Welch knew that if he persisted in his hatred of McVeigh, he would just be perpetuating the same revenge as McVeigh had. He wondered where it all would end if no one put a stop to it. Welch went on to meet McVeigh’s father and give him comfort during McVeigh’s trial and execution. He began to campaign against the death penalty.
I met Welch at a Peace and Justice conference in Los Angeles, Calif., in 1999. After I heard him speak, I knew I had to examine my feelings of hatred and revenge against the Oklahoma City bombers.
Fast-forward to the events of 9/11. After Welch’s example, I knew that I could not harbor feelings of revenge and hatred toward those who took the lives of so many innocent people that day and, had it not been for the grace of the Almighty Father, would have taken my life as well.
My dear friends in Christ, I ask you examine your own feelings about those misguided men who put so many people to death on 9/11. I ask you to look deep within yourselves and to try to change any feelings of hatred that you still might feel toward them. When we say the Lord’s Prayer at any time this week, I ask you to try to understand what it is we are asking God to do when we say the words, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” If we look at those words another way, we see that we are saying, “Father, if I don’t forgive others for the wrongs they may have done to me, then Father, don’t forgive me either the wrongs I do.” Those are some very serious words we are praying when we say the Lord’s Prayer, and they match the lesson Jesus taught in Matthew 18: We will be punished unless we forgive our brothers and sisters from our heart.
I ask that you and I pray together that we will all learn how to forgive those who have wronged us, that we examine ourselves and try to let past hurts be healed. I pray we learn not to hold grudges or to hate others for what they have done to us or to others that we may know.
My heart cries out for those victims of 9/11 and their families. On the 20-year anniversary of that dark and evil day, let us remember the victims, their families and those heroes who responded by cleansing our hearts of all evil wishes and by filling our souls with the mercy of Jesus Christ.
Let us be grateful for the members of the military who have put their lives on the line defending our country for the past 20 years in response to this senseless act of violence.
Let us pray for the repose of the souls of all who died on 9/11 and those in the military who were lost during 20 years of war, for the continued healing of those injured, and for the recovery and mental healing of their families.
May the God of mercy free us all from our sins of anger, hatred and revenge so the cycle of sin and violence has a chance of coming to an end! May God bless you all. Amen.
Deacon David Powers serves at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Monroe.