September 8, 2002

The most important dates in history once were ordinary days, and that is why chronicles of important events often begin, “It was a day like any other day…” That is how it was on the morning of September 11 last year when the roar of a large and low-flying airplane could be heard flying over our altar and our church and our parish. The horrors that followed will be burned forever in the collective memory of our civilization. The worst and best of human nature were seen that day.

We have not become a nation of heroes and high vision because of it. The noblest parts of our culture remain entangled with the weaknesses that challenge every generation: the spiritual vision of the age remains confused (only a few weeks ago our glorious cathedral once again was desecrated by profane acts) and the moral sense still struggles for cogency (a case in point being the inane regulations of our city government trying to create a new definition for marriage). So much more important now is the presence of the Church in every neighborhood. No church is an option. Christ made the Church crucial. In a world at war with terror, the crossroads of common sense are to be found where there is the Cross.

I have been back to Ground Zero only once since the attack, and have not gone there since. Tourists, however respectful, cannot grasp what happened there, and the gigantic desolation of that place makes even the most sober visitor seem too curious and nonchalant for decency. The same may be said of all the battlefields of man’s memory, like Antietam where 3,650 soldiers died in one day, still a fraction of those lost at Verdun.

There are debates about a suitable memorial and even about how best to remember the anniversary itself. There is no debate for Catholic Christians. The Church offers the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the dead. It is newly fashionable to say a funeral is a celebration of the life of the departed. It may be that derivatively, remembering that not all aspects of anyone’s life are cause for celebration. Each Requiem is first of all a celebration of Christ’s victory of death, and by that conquest of death the Church is able to invoke the Cross and the merits of the saints on behalf of those who have died. There were three thousand people, infants and elderly and most in the prime of life from every state and thirty nations.

Do attend one of the Masses on September 11, or make a spiritual communion if you are physically unable to be there. Do also remember that we who always are engaged in spiritual combat are now at war as a nation. Pray for our leaders, our armed forces, and our allies who risk their lives for us, and for all the innocent people who inevitably are the victims of violence.

Fr. George W. Rutler