A few years ago, on one of my days as on-call hospital chaplain, I visited a patient who began the conversation by saying he belonged to no church, that he believed in God, but was pretty sure God didn’t care much about him.
That’s
not the sort of thing you usually hear when visiting patients, so I asked him
why he thought that. His answer was just as surprising…
“I’m 83
years old and I’ve done just about every bad thing you can imagine. And now they
tell me I’m dying. I don’t know if there’s a heaven or a hell, but I’m pretty
sure I’m not going to heaven.”
I smiled at him and asked, “Oh, so you’re a sinner?”
His
response? “Yeah, I guess I am.”
“Well,
welcome to the club,” I told him. “a very exclusive club, one that includes us all.”
It was then I thought of what St. Paul wrote to Timothy, words from today's first reading:
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these, I am the foremost” [1 Tim 1:15].
Sharing this with him, I told
him he reminded me of St. Paul, a man who realized his sinfulness, but then
came to understand that Jesus Christ entered the world, that He suffered and
died to save him and every other sinner.
The two
of us shared a lot that morning, including the fact that we each had a friend
who died on 9/11.
Yes, we shared a lot, about sin, and repentance, and forgiveness, and redemption. And I think it changed us both. As we heard in our psalm:
“He raises up the lowly from the dust…” [Ps 113:7]
That’s
how we all feel sometimes, isn't it? As if we’re enveloped in a cloud of dust, struggling
to break through, hoping to see the light and find the truth.
But we
can’t do it on our own. Only God can raise us up, out of the world’s dust. Like
my hospital patient, sometimes it can take a lifetime to understand and accept
that.
As I hope he discovered, it’s never too late to rebuild our house on the solid foundation
of God’s mercy, God's love, and God's Word.
I thought
of him, too, today as we call to mind tragic events of 20 years ago. And
there’s so much to remember, isn’t there?
We pray for
those who lost their lives, and for those they left behind.
We also pray for and thank those who gave their lives, who didn’t hesitate to enter selflessly into that cauldron, those scenes of destruction, to help -- those first responders who gave everything, and the 40 men and women on flight 93 who sacrificed their lives to save others.
Yes,
indeed, although so many died in those clouds of dust in Manhattan, the Pentagon,
and in a field in rural Pennsylvania, we believe they were raised up by the
Lord.
In the first of His brief parables in today’s Gospel passage from Luke, Jesus tells the disciples:
“Every tree is known by its fruit…” [Lk 6:44]
There was certainly enough “rotten fruit” on that September 11, acts carried
out by those whose hearts were filled with hatred.
But there was so much more “good fruit,” thanks to the goodness the world witnessed that day. How did Jesus put it?
“A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good…” [Lk 6:45]
There
were so many hearts filled with goodness that day, so many who have given their lives in our defense since then, and so many today as well.
The other day, in an interview, a woman who lost her husband on 9/11 said, “And I pray, too,
for the terrorists, because only God can change their hearts. We certainly haven't been able to do it with politics, diplomacy, or military might.”
Today, she, and I, and all of us look at our world and wonder if much has really changed in 20 years. Perhaps the
answer lies in our hearts.
Do we
honestly think we can bring about goodness in the world without God’s help?
No, only
God can raise us up out of the dust. We can’t do it on our own.
Perhaps 3,000 years ago, the Psalmist said it well:
"Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals in whom there is no help. When their breath departs, they return to the earth, so that very day their plans perish. Happy are those whose help is in the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God [Ps 146:3-5].
Do we place our hope in the Lord, our God? Are we like those whom the Lord praised?
"I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, listens to my words, and acts on them” [Lk 6:47].
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