In peace, let us pray to the Lord

 

(Introduction)

 

Dear brothers and sisters, I know the exact spot where I first heard that the Japanese had declared war on us with their attack on Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941, the day which went “down in infamy.”  I remember also the exact spot where I heard that we had dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima August 6th, 1945.  Just as many of us know the exact spot where we first heard that President Kennedy was assassinated Nov. 22, 1962.  Now all of us together know the exact spot where we first heard that terrorists had   declared war on the USA on the 11th day of September, in the Year of our Lord 2001.  That day too goes down in infamy. The tragedy at the World Trade Center in New York City had the surprise attack of Pearl Harbor in it.  It has the doomsday feel of Hiroshima in it.  It has also the personal grief over the assassination of someone we love.

 

Americans have watched great cities of the world like London, Berlin, Warsaw, and Leningrad collapsing into great heaps of rubble during WWII.  We have watched war but we have never experienced it, and now we have.  And for the days and weeks and months ahead we shall continue to experience war in the pit of our stomachs, as we will see over and over again those Boeing 767’s (one carrying 65 human beings, and the other carrying 92) crash into the south and north towers of the World Trade Center.

 

Those twin towers truly towering and piercing the skyline of New York City – one moment they’re there and the next moment they’re gone, and gone with them is our own great sense of invincibility, security, and peace. 

 

On the 11th day of September 2001, that apocalypse (which down deep in our heart of hearts we knew was inevitable) had finally burst upon our skyline with its mushroom clouds of smoke. Just as the atomic bomb ushered in for us an entirely new era (the Atomic Age), which changed our lives forever, so now the tragedy at the World Trade Center ushers in for us a new age, and from this moment on our lives will never be the same any more.

 

Today, September 16, six days later, we are now in the very first moments of our new era. We are still stunned. We are still scared. We are still depressed.  And we are now also very unsure of ourselves, because on September 11th everything changed on us, and now we don’t know for sure where we’re going.  That’s always the case with the first moments (which can be days and weeks and even months) of any new age that breaks upon us.

 

What should we be doing in these first moments? The football and baseball industry considered it too obscene to be playing any games this weekend. Rightly so.  The movie industry also considered it too obscene to be showing any movies featuring hijackings or any other acts of terrorism.  Rightly so. What should we, this Sunday assembly of ours, being doing in these first moments? I too considered it too obscene to be preaching one of those homilies of mine. (Oh how gun-ho I was to be preaching today about “The Prodigal Son.”)

 

What should we be doing on this very first Sunday after our Apocalypse?  Instead of preaching, let’s be praying. Let’s be praying our prayers of petition, which are bursting at the seams of our hearts right now, trying to fly upward toward the throne of amazing Grace. Let us pray our prayers of petition today as we have never prayed them before. And let me led the assembly in those petitions. After each petition I will sing, “In peace, let us pray to the Lord.” And you in turn will sing “Lord have mercy.” Let us kneel now (those of us who can) to pray.

 

Prayers of Petition

 

“In peace let us pray to the Lord.”  § “Lord have mercy.”

 

(1)

That you, oh Lord, in these very first moments, would give us physical and emotional strength for finding and burying the dead, for consoling the living   victims, and for taking loving care of each other, for we are all victims dazed and depressed.     “In peace let us pray to the Lord.”  § “Lord have mercy.”

 

(2)

That you, oh Lord, would bless our children, the smallest of all the victims, who have watched our tragedy over and over again on.  That you, oh Lord, would show us how to walk them through their fears and assure them they are safe:  “In peace let us pray to the Lord.”  § “Lord have mercy.”

 

 

(3)

That you, oh Lord, would bless and inspire the media with its great power for good: its power for generating compassion in us all, for helping us cope with our tragedy; its power for showing the whole world the true face of terrorism. “In peace let us pray to the Lord.”  § “Lord have mercy.”

 

(4)

That you, oh Lord, in these first moments would sooth our trauma and calm our panic; that you would strengthen our character with resilience and especially now with restraint, so that we do not match insanity with insanity and evil with evil, and become ourselves the terrorists we condemn.  “In peace let us pray to the Lord.”  § “Lord have mercy.”

 

(5)

That you, oh Lord, from this very first moment, would enkindle firm resolve in us and would nail it fast to our restraint, -- the firm resolve to do whatever is necessary that we, as a people, might feel safe, despite the amount of time it may take, the amount of energy it might demand, the amount of money it might cost, and despite the cosmetic freedoms it might ask us to forego.  “In peace let us pray to the Lord.”  § “Lord have mercy.”

 

(6)

That you, oh Lord, would enlighten our President and the Congress to show us the special kind of leadership that the moment demands: a leadership that will brings us together in mourning and will inspire us to take care of each other; a leadership that will soundly nail resolve to restraint and will unite us all for the huge job ahead.  “In peace let us pray to the Lord.”  § “Lord have mercy.”

 

(7)

That you, oh Lord, would move us to equally detest our own violence which we, as a nation, export to poor countries, and which we here at home sell and buy as entertainment, even for our children, whose petty school massacres vary only in degree from this monumental massacre of the terrorists.

”In peace let us pray to the Lord.”  § “Lord have mercy.”

 

(8)

That you, oh Lord, would rise up and enkindle your anger and bring down, destroy, incinerate all religious fanaticism, whether Christian, Judaic, or Islamic; that religious fanaticism which ignites the hate that terrorizes your children in the very name of your Holy Name.  “In peace let us pray to the Lord.”  § “Lord have mercy.”

 

(9)

<<The apocalyptic day of September 11, 2001 stopped us all dead in our tracks, whether we were involved in some bitter quarrel with another person over this or that, or in some hot pursuit of a big profitable deal, or involved in some messy accident, or in some painful loss of property or position, or involved in some financial pinch. It stopped us all dead in our tracks; suddenly most of all that didn’t seem very important at all.>>

 

That you, oh Lord, through the tragedy of this past week would call us back to whatever sense of proportion we might have lost in our lives.  “In peace let us pray to the Lord.”  § “Lord have mercy.”

 

(10)

<<In the early seconds of our new era, terrorism paralyzed us as a nation: no planes were flying, no schools were teaching, no public buildings were serving, no businesses were transacting. It paralyzed us also as individuals: dazed and depressed, we became immobilized.  All of a sudden, we (who always have a long list of things to do) -- all of a sudden, we had nothing to do, because in the face of such a great tragedy nothing seems important anymore. Terrorism seeks to paralyze us. It wants to take our lives from us.>> 

 

That you, oh Lord, would give us courage and strength to take back our lives again, and to do again the things we have to do, and yes even to do again the things we like to do, like walking out into the glorious fall with all its glorious colors, like celebrating Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah, New Years, as best we can.  “In peace let us pray to the Lord.”  § “Lord have mercy.”

 

(11)

<<God too became victim on the 11th day of September, for nothing kills God so effectively as does man’s inhumanity to man. Before that mountainous debris of buildings and bodies (5000 of them), we no longer ask, “Is God really a loving father who cares for us?” We now wonder:  “Is God really at all?” We now wonder whether perhaps God is dead!

 

Some years ago James Carroll wrote in his small volume entitled Contemplation:  “As I write this a crew of wreckers, demolition men, prepare to collapse the remaining charred wall of our chapel here at Boston University. An arsonist (a terrorist), still unnamed, set fire to the building.” He continues: “When I moved through the burnt shell of our chapel the morning after our night of arson, I felt the absence of God so powerfully it became a new kind of presence for me.” Then he adds, “God survives the crumbling of the house we build him.”   God also survives the crumbling of the two towers we built ourselves. >>

 

That you, oh Lord, would lift up our drooping faith as   we now stand knee deep in the mountainous debris before us; that you, oh Lord, would now fill up the empty absence we feel in our stomachs, and would transform it into a new kind of presence that assures us, for the new age before us, that you have survived the collapse of our towers, and so also has our faith.  In peace let us pray to the Lord.”  § “Lord have mercy.”