09/23/01

It’s hard to discover that you’re hated

The destruction of symbols of America’s financial prowess and her military might on Sept. 11, along with rumors of attacks on the nation’s capitol, has brought home the animosity and resentment towards the United States felt by those behind the attacks and those who agree with them. We are used to seeing our country as a beacon of freedom rather than a source of oppression. The attacks not only destroyed human life but destroyed as well our sense of security in our image as popular leader of all those who desire to be free.

Most of all, of course, the attacks brought death to thousands of people and to many of those who rushed to the rescue of those who were trapped in the World Trade Center. The stories of firefighters running up stairways while others were escaping down those same stairways taught us again the lesson of self-sacrifice for the sake of others. A society holds together as long as parents sacrifice for their children, public officials sacrifice for the common good of citizens, ordinary people come to the rescue of those unable to care for themselves. That society is still intact in the United States, and we have many people to thank for what was done this past week.

Part of our difficulty in speaking to these evil acts arises from our uncertainty about what comes next. People and countries have a right to defend themselves, but we are to do so in a way that does not punish innocent people. That discernment escapes us when we’re not sure who has acted. Whoever they are, they are people whose hatred of our country stems from deep conviction. A military response, even a just response, will not of itself change that conviction, and the President has given us warning of a protracted conflict.

The emotional reactions to the attacks on our country range from shock to anger to fear, but our faith should carry us to other emotions as well, to hope and confidence. Our confidence is not based, finally, on our country’s ability to recover and to protect itself, real though that ability is, but on God’s ability to bring good out of evil. Many people filled the churches and other places of worship last week. The events of Sept. 11 left in sharp relief the outlines of human experience: good and evil, life and death, sin and grace. So much of our time is spent frivolously, in pastimes that hide basic realities and leave us enmeshed in trivia. Our faith not only should comfort us in times like the present, but pull us beyond any time to what is everlasting, what is eternal. Evil is very real, not only in terrorists but in ourselves and in our midst. But God’s grace is even more real, not only in ourselves and in our midst but also among terrorists. The basic message of Jesus Christ is a call to constant conversion, to continual self-sacrifice. The confidence our faith in Christ gives us stems from our believing that no one is beyond conversion, beyond the reach of God’s grace. Forgiveness is stronger than hatred, even if we have to struggle personally to believe that.

In these days, the shock of being hated is already less important than the experience of being respected and loved, not because of our military or financial might, but because of who we are. I have received many letters from around the world, from bishops in Argentina, in France, in Turkmenistan, in Poland, and in other countries. The Holy Father wrote immediately to President Bush: “Shocked by the unspeakable horror of “inhuman terrorist attacks against innocent people in different parts of the United States, I hurry to express to you and your fellow citizens my profound sorrow and my closeness in prayer for the nation at this dark and tragic moment.” The Pope and millions of others around the world have promised their personal solidarity.

We cannot allow these events to be captured only by political and military and economic analyses. May self-sacrifice become a call to each of us, no matter our way of life. My prayer, and yours as well, beyond our prayers for the victims and their families, is that this experience of solidarity and these examples of self-sacrifice will, along with God’s mercy and grace, shape us in the weeks and months to come. God bless you.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I.