(This article reprinted with permission from the Arlington Catholic Herald.)
First, we turn the question to God. What does He want us to do as individuals in our homes and our communities? As always, begin with prayer and begin at home.
We need to reassure our children. Don’t assume that the time for this reassurance has passed. It has not. The evil of that day lives on in the memories of even the youngest children. They continue to watch us to see how we are responding. They take their cues from us. But they are not the only ones watching. Much of what our children learn, they will learn as we respond to adults. Let them overhear.
In the wake of great evil rendered in the name of God, we are increasingly aware of seekers. Adults and children alike, they ask where God is in all of this or how God could allow such death and destruction? God is right here. One of the first signs that He is here has been the unprecedented opportunity to witness for Him that was created Sept. 11. Suddenly God is the conversation topic at the playground, the grocery store and the schoolyard. As Christians, we need to be prepared to be a light in dark days for our children and our communities. We need to have a response when we are offered the opportunity to comment.
God is still good. He did not stop being good when a bad thing happened. He can bring great good out of terrible evil. For the first time in their lives, our children have real heroes. They have seen examples of people laying down their lives for strangers. They have seen the virtue of courage lived out in front of them. This is not a playing field; these are not sports heroes or movie stars. It is real life. Real courage. Real love.
Within moments of hearing of the tragedy, President Bush stood in a public school and called the entire nation to prayer. Congress gathered on the steps of the Capitol to sing “God Bless America.” This in a country that doesn’t allow prayer in school! Now you’re scared. Now, you want God. He’s there, ready and waiting to hold you close. Pray on! And if you can’t find the words, those of us who have been praying all along would be glad to help you.
God is in control. Children, especially, need to remember that God is sovereign — He is the ultimate ruler and He has complete power. He has given us the Church to guide us in these times. Most of us knew little about just war before Sept. 11. The Church was ready and waiting. It was all there already. Most of us had no idea that the Catechism specifically addressed terrorism. But it does. It is comforting to know that we can seek and find His wisdom in the timeless treasure of the Church.
It is our responsibility to seek and find that wisdom. Educate yourself about just war. Understand what the appropriate response to terrorism is. I recommend you begin at the Web site of this paper (www.catholicherald.com). The articles that have appeared since Sept. 11 are careful, thoughtful explanations of Church doctrine. There exists in the archives of this paper an excellent education on the Christian response to terror. We absolutely must seek to do the will of God and we must be prepared to bear witness to the Christian response again and again in the coming days.
Be especially mindful of patriotic rhetoric, which gives way to vengeance. We are not teaching our children to be vengeful. We are not fueling hate. We are created in the image of God. God is love. He can’t be hate. We are angry. We are hurt. We are sad beyond comprehension. But we are Christian. I saw the following quote, attributed to Sen. John McCain, posted in a school window: “I say to our enemies, ‘We are coming. God may show you mercy; we will not.’” We cannot echo this. We cannot teach this to our children. We are to walk in the ways of the Lord. If God is merciful, so, too, are we.
When someone asks how we are to be prepared, we remind them that we must live our lives prepared to die. This is nothing new. With every day, we are offered an opportunity to make things right with God. Thousands of people died in an office building. It is still safer to sit at one’s desk than to drive the Beltway. People die unexpectedly every day. It would be just like God to use such a terrible event to bring throngs of people back to the grace and mercy found in the confessional. Are you afraid of death? Go to confession. Name that fear as a sin, then name the rest of them. Receive absolution. There is real, substantive comfort and consolation there.
Finally, God is our refuge. I have been most surprised in the days following the attack, by the confusion and despair of people I assumed to be strong in their faith. There are two responses I have seen most often. The first was expressed by a young mother, the wife of a police officer. Her husband was at the hospital with the young widow of a fellow officer who died after rescuing three people from the Pentagon. This mother was troubled because she felt that she wasn’t adequately assuring her children of God’s goodness. She was sad at the loss of a friend; brokenhearted for the grieving widow who was so like her; and frightened for her own husband. She said, “I know God’s there. I know He’s good. It’s all in the vault. I just can’t get at it right now.” She will. In time, she will rest in the Lord. She will find comfort in faith.
The other response is more troubling. A woman listening to the mother above said, “I am a new Christian. I don’t understand this at all. I don’t have much in the vault and I am badly shaken.” This woman’s faith is being seriously challenged for the first time in her Christian life. In the face of such challenge, she needs to turn to the Lord to understand the Lord. She needs to spend quiet time, away from the television and radio, with the Word of God. She needs to make deposits in the vault. She needs to commit a few key verses to memory and to pray them again and again: Romans 8:28, Philippians 4:6, 1 Chronicles 29:11, Psalm 46, Isaiah 33:15-16, Psalm 91.
We should all spend time in front of the Blessed Sacrament. We should receive the Lord in holy Communion. We should teach our children how to meet the challenges of suffering as a people of faith. Suffering and pain are a part of life. Rarely, do we all experience that suffering together. Rarely, are we given such an opportunity to bring such an urgent need before the Lord together. An entire nation needs hope. It needs the Gospel. It needs the Lord.
These are exciting times to be a Christian! We have a task before us. Times of great revival have always been preceded by terrible tests. It will be a formidable job to bring the hope and peace of Christ to a world badly shaken. Never before has there been so urgent a need to make believers of all nations. The apostle Paul reassures us that “all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Rm 8:28). We are being called out of the rubble. Each and every one of us has the opportunity like never before to make an impact on the spiritual security of a new generation. Get ready.
