Healing from 9/11

Come, let us return to the Lord, For it is he who has rent, but he will heal us; he has struck us, but he will bind our wounds. Hosea, 6:1.

As we remember 9/11, we will again be subjected to images of all the horrific events that happened that day. As we watch, we cannot help but be moved, with emotions stirring up our hearts and souls. How to handle these powerful feelings? For in remembering 9/11, we remember also the hateful deed, the senseless deaths, the destruction, fear, and lack of respect for life. In watching the tapes of 9/11 events, we shall be re-living the event all over again, ten years later. And our heart will beg us...please, help me to heal from such a deep wound.

Return to the Lord, Hosea says, and he will heal us. We return when we learn the Divine act of forgiveness. It is forgiveness that takes us into the very essence of God. It is forgiveness that transforms us. To forgive, we must relinquish our anger, and refuse to nurture it endlessly. For anger is an infection. As we read in the Book of Sirach 28:3: Could anyone nourish anger against another and expect healing from the Lord?

As the images are shown again and again this weekend, let us make the conscious choice to forgive. Let not the injury done against us keep us in hatred and with a continuous desire for revenge. For only forgiveness can turn the senseless death of those caught in the towers, in the pentagon, or in the hijacked planes into a powerful witness, born out of our own souls.

Let us honor the tenth anniversary of 9/11 by returning to the Lord.

For only the Divine One can heal us and make us whole again.