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There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven….
a time to be born and a time to die…
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance…
a time for war and a time for peace.
Since September 11, 2001, we as a people have gone through wave after wave of tremendous emotion. We have felt shock, grief, anger, fear, anxiety. Most of us have also found ourselves regaining a sense of “normality,” as our lives have gone on with their ordinary stresses, demands, and pleasures. It didn’t seem possible a year ago, but most people have experienced enough healing to resume life and partake of its joys again. We who have wept have also laughed, and the mourners have danced. And this is how it should be.
But this week, which marks the anniversary of the tragedy of the attacks in New York, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania, will again be a time to weep and to mourn. The occasional tears or tightness in the throat, spurred by the newly released stories of victims’ heroism or the ongoing struggles of their survivors, will be a shared experience this week as our nation remembers the wound inflicted on that brilliantly sunny morning last September. In a way, the wound will be re-opened. This too is how it should be.
We return to that painful moment not with any morbid purpose. We do not go back with the thought of remaining mired in anger or sorrow. To do that would neither honor the lost nor benefit the living. We remember and mourn together because love requires it. A year ago we discovered a bond of love uniting us with people we never met. We hurt with them. We mourned with them.
Healing comes with remembering
and sharing. Our service on September 8 and our prayer vigils on the
11th will be part of that process. My office door will be open to anyone
who would like to talk through their feelings. In our own healing, we
pay tribute to the fallen, and fulfill the calling of Love itself. There
is a time to mourn, and there will be a time to dance again as well.