September 11, 2022 - Pastor Message
04/25/2024THE YEAR OF HEALING
SPIRITUAL HEALING
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again, rejoice! Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near. Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:4-7).
It has taken years, but the current generation of young people graduating from high school and college is the first generation of the post-9/11 world to grow up with no memory of that horrible day. For the rest of us, it is impossible to forget. It is our shared national trauma, the deadliest terrorist attack in American history, claiming the lives of 3000 innocent people. Like all trauma, it has left a deep scar on our hearts that aches anew with each anniversary, and though the passage of time may dull it, it will never go away.
That single day of violence and hate spawned two decades of even more violence that added another estimated 900,000 people to the death toll, including 7,000 American servicemen and women. Without passing judgment on the morality or advisability of the War on Terror and other conflicts that emerged after 9/11, right or wrong, no nation or people can suffer that much bloodshed without profoundly affecting us on a fundamental level, even as deep as our souls. The spiritual trauma we have all suffered from 9/11 and its aftermath needs equally serious healing.
We need to rebuild the humanity we have lost through these years of violence by drawing closer to Christ and becoming more Christlike ourselves. We need to build up the peace in our souls that only Christ, the Prince of Peace, can bring and become agents of that peace in our world. Drawing closer to Christ of course begins with a serious commitment to real, intentional prayer. That means putting our hearts and minds into it and giving ourselves completely to Christ when we pray, whatever form our prayer takes. It also means making and sticking to a commitment to both regular personal prayer and communal prayer, setting time and a special place aside just for you and Jesus but also doing the same with others in prayer, especially the sacraments of Eucharist and Penance and Reconciliation, the healing sacrament.
Cultivating healing peace and wholeness in our own souls then opens us up to the next task, sharing that peace and healing with others and becoming peacemakers in our world. It is beyond the scope of this humble column to lay out a how-to guide on that subject, but a good start is to study and research those who have put such guides together, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and their pastoral letter “Confronting a Culture of Violence” (https://www.usccb.org/resources/confronting-culture-violence-catholic-framework-action-0). It was published in 1994, but it remains just as relevant today as it was then and is well worth reading. 9/11 and its aftermath still haunt us today, but by seeking peace within ourselves and making peace in our world, the grace of Christ can bring the healing we need to ensure that future generations never know another terrible day like 9/11.
Fr. Marc Stockton
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