~ by Father Ron Camarda

This week, Father Ron shares a homily from a priest friend, Father Jeff McGowan, Pastor of Queen of Peace Parish in Gainesville, Florida, who reflects on 9/11 in a powerful, spiritual way.

1^st Reading: Sirach 27:30-28:7

The vengeful will suffer the Lord’s vengeance, for He remembers their sins in detail.

Psalm 103

He pardons all your inequities, heals all your ills, redeems your life from destruction, He crowns you with kindness and compassion.

2^nd reading: Romans 14:7-9

None of us lives for oneself and no one dies for oneself.

Gospel: Mathew 18: 21-35

You wicked servant! I forgave your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?

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Do you remember what today’s readings had to say? Isn’t it interesting that in every Catholic and most Episcopalian/Anglican and Lutheran churches throughout the world these same readings are proclaimed and this has been the design for over 50 years? On this anniversary of the terrorists’ attacks on our country, in the first reading, Sirach wrote: “The vengeful will suffer the Lord’s vengeance, for He remembers their sins in detail.” And the Psalm proclaimed that God is merciful and forgives our sins. St. Paul in his letter to the Romans wrote: “None of us lives for oneself and no one dies for oneself.” Finally, in the Gospel, Jesus has the king say: “You wicked servant! I forgave your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?”

I was on Retreat outside Philadelphia last week. But, last Sunday, I went down to the site of the World Trade Center in New York City. It was all fenced in and I couldn’t see much; but I went to St. Paul’s Chapel. The chapel has been in continuous use longer than any other structure in Manhattan; in fact, George Washington prayed there the day he was inaugurated our first president.

Ten years ago, the small church miraculously survived the collapse of the towers in the horror of 9/11. It became a refuge for the thousands of police officers, firefighters and rescue workers at “Ground Zero.” During the days when there was some hope of finding survivors, the parishioners fed and comforted the tired, hungry, dirty and often stressed out rescue workers with everything from hot coffee and meals to eye drops and a place to rest.

Today, the chapel is open to the public. Along the walls there are mementos, letters, pictures, scraps of metal from the fallen towers. Even now, the people walking around St. Paul’s Chapel seem in shock. There’s a strange quiet, a sort of gloominess. There are stories of heroic men and women within all that horror. As evil as it all was, these heroes and the rescue workers and the people of St. Paul’s Chapel, made God present in that world of ash and rubble and death.

Cardinal George of Chicago wrote an article about the bombing of a Catholic Church in Bagdad. Many were shot down as they tried to escape the brutal massacre. Cardinal George related that a three year old boy named Adam saw his parents brutally shot. He walked among the bodies crying only one word to the terrorists, “ENOUGH!,” “ENOUGH!” After a while, they shot and killed the child.

It’s been said that when an Irish priest gets Alzheimer’s disease, he forgets everything–except his grudges… It’s time to let go of our grudges. It’s impossible to get through this life without being hurt by spouses and family. Friends, co-workers, employers, teammates, other students, betray us. We all have grudges. There’s a reflection on the last page of the current issue of our St. Augustine Catholic magazine that suggests that child in Bagdad was like the Christ Child saying to all of us, “Enough!” When we feel those hurts stirring within us, we want to hear little child crying out to us, “ENOUGH!” “ENOUGH!” That’s the message in today’s readings. God remembers all of our sins and forgives us, should we not do the same for others? If we did, can you imagine the room we’d make in our hearts for joy? Can you imagine how the gloominess would pass and the good news could brighten our lives?

Love, joy, peace,

Father Ron Moses+

www.tearinthedesert.com

Father Ron Camarda is a retired Naval Chaplain and author of “Tear in the Desert,” a powerful book containing his memoirs of life and death at the Battle for Fallujah. Father Ron appears on EWTN and recently won the Silver Medal from the Military Writers Society of America.