One way of taking up the cross is by bearing wrongs, even grievous wrongs, patiently. This is what it means, at least in part, to demonstrate faith by works. Just as forgiving doesn't mean forgetting, remembering does not mean refusing to forgive. While I am not going to develop it in this post, there is an important distinction that needs to be made between forgiveness and reconciliation.
Given that the twentieth anniversary of the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in our nation's capital, and onboard United Flight 93 over Pennsylvania, falls today, I think as Christians it is important to let scripture remind us what it means to revere Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God.
To begin my reflection the way I did is in no way to diminish the evil of 9/11/01. I am certainly not in favor of forgetting those who were killed as they simply went about their daily lives. We can't forget the mothers who did not come home to their children, the husbands who didn't come home to their wives, sons and daughters who left behind bereft parents, dreams that were shattered, etc.
I certainly want to remember the sacrifice made, in too many instances, the ultimate sacrifice, by those first responders who rushed headlong into danger on 9/11, seeking to assist those in peril. Let's not forget those exposed to dust and fumes generated by the collapse of the towers who contracted diseases and who died painful and slower deaths.
Our first reading, taken from one of deutero-Isaiah's Servant Songs, gets to the heart of the matter:
I gave my back to those who beat me,I think one of the perennial questions for Christian is something like- Is Jesus the Christ or not? Is the Lord GOD our help or isn't he? Do we put our faith and trust in God or take matters into our own hands, forgetting God by ignoring Jesus?
my cheeks to those who tore out my beard;
My face I did not hide
from insults and spitting
You see, those to whom these prophetic words were immediately addressed were Israelites exiled in Babylon. Jerusalem had been destroyed and Israel scattered. God had let a foreign power invade the holy land, destroy the Temple, and take many of the chosen people captive, thus impoverishing not only the worship of God but Israelite society and culture. There was no guarantee of their return and restoration. Yet, this is God's word to them during this time.
Genuinely prophetic words show us the difference between human and divine thinking. Also in deutero-Isaiah, we find these words: "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, my thoughts higher than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:9).
To human thinking, like Peter's in light of Jesus's prediction of the Passion, prophetic words seem strange, counterintuitive, not fit for purpose, etc. In short, what God does (or does not seem to do) is not what I'd do!
Post-9/11, the world, it seems to me, has become more violent, not less so. The first fifth of the twenty-first century has not been a great historical era in terms of peace and prosperity throughout the world.
Bearing the cross means to feel the weight of evil but not to be crushed by it. In light of Saint Paul's insistence that vengeance is God's (Romans 12:19), to seek vengeance is to play God and to do so according to an all-too human conception of what being God means.
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