September 11 By Deacon Gregory M. Kirk St. Joseph Catholic Church, Galion September 11th will be a busy work day for me this year. Like other days, it will be one filled with commitments and responsibilities. However, on September 11th, as I navigate the demands of work, ministry and family, my mind will wander to events and memories outside the structure of the day, and my heart will swell with emotion, leading me, along with many of you, to pray. I’m certain that regardless of the weather this September 11th, I will remember a sunny but crisp September 11th morning, when television breaking news clips relayed images of black smoke in New York City that covered Manhattan, cutting away to show a similar image at the Pentagon in Washington, but returning to show the Twin Towers, engulfed in flames, and then later, focusing on a large crater in a rural Pennsylvania farm field, where an airliner had crashed. I am sure I will also remember the heart breaking news images of people wandering the streets of New York, clutching large photos of loved ones who were missing. Missing on the day America was attacked. I will certainly recall the image of Franciscan priest and New York City Fire Department Chaplain, Father Mychal Judge, being carried from the Twin Towers after he lost his life there, trying to be of pastoral help and support to the injured. And I will again remember the look of shock and uncertainty on the faces of coworkers, neighbors, and family members on that infamous day: 9-1-2001. Recent world events, especially the displacement and persecution of Christians in the Middle East, remind me that the evil manifest and visible on September 11, 2001 is still with us. This comes as no surprise. Evil is ancient. Evil is unchanging. Evil will always be present in the world, until the end of time. But as the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen once remarked, “Evil will have its hour, but God will have His day.” This September 11th, I will remember there are two powers at work in the world: good and evil. And I will remember that good is stronger than evil. Always. Edmund Burke, the eighteenth century Irish statesman claimed that, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” I will be praying this September 11th for good men and women everywhere, especially our leaders, to reject the option of doing nothing, and instead, to resolve to doing whatever is necessary to oppose and vanquish evil, when it confronts and threatens innocent human life. Yes, evil may have its hour. But God will surely have His day.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 00:30:00 +0000
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