24 Sunday Ordinary Time, 11 September 2011, Matthew 18:21-35

The Cross at Ground Zero

Where were you? Do you remember? 1:46pm on Tuesday September 11, 2001. I was coming to the end of my first month in St Patrick's College, Maynooth. It was called a spiritual month. We didn't leave the college. We were asked not to use our mobile phones or email. And, of course, we didn't watch any television.

A few of us were gathered in the Common Room. I still remember it well. The television was unplugged, and was turned into the wall, lest we would be tempted to turn it around and plug it in. As we sat there, we could here panicked footsteps running down the long corridor towards us. Suddenly, Fr Enda, the priest in charge of us, rushed into the room. We had no idea what was going on.

He didn't say a word. He just walked to the television, turned it around and plugged it in. Then, turning it on, he flicked over to Sky News and told those of us gathered: 'You better watch this.' And then he disappeared out of the room. And then we joined with the rest of the world, watching in horror as well known cityscape of New York City seemed to be taken over by a kind of Armageddon.

That day shaped our consciousness in these times in a way that no other day since has managed to do. And that is one of the saddest aspects of acts of violence and terror. They don't get us to focus on the needs of the communities and groups that carry them out; terror doesn't solve the injustices that can cause it to spring up. Instead, the experience created fear, violence, an excuse to reign down war on huge populations of innocent people.

One of the questions that has taken up acres of ink and hours of TV time is the question: What were they thinking? What was on the mind of the men who committed these terrible acts of violence?

We want to get inside their heads, to see if we can understand what was going on. And, there is no answer to that question.

However, there is a question that we hardly ever ask. That question is: what did the experience of watching those planes go into the Twin Towers do to me? What did it do to us? What did it do to you?

There is no doubt in my mind that that mind formed our hearts and minds. That moment was fuel for fear, fuel for vengeance, fuel for hatred, fuel for violence and fuel for racism and prejudice.

How do we address these dark forces and emotions in ourselves? Because, we must address them. Or else, they eat us up inside and come out as anger, as anxiety, as depression, as fear.

How does Scripture address this? Listen again to the words from our first reading: "Remember the last things, and stop hating, remember dissolution and death, and live by the commandments."

My friends, in Scripture we have a treasure trove of faith, a treasure trove of hope, a treasure trove of love. By looking to the future – to the sure reality of the end of our own life on this earth and the beginning of our life in eternity – as we look to the future of eternal life, our life here is placed into perspective.

Realising this spiritual fact was one of the core reasons that I was able to respond to God's call to be a priest. Realising that our life here on earth is short, is tiny and miniscule by comparison with the life to come. That allowed me to be in Maynooth on September 11, 2001.