We come this morning to commemorate, to remember, this time a year ago. We all, of course, have personal and vivid memories. Even though we were far away, we were very close to those who perished that day. Indeed we don’t have to come here to remember 9/11 – we can’t forget it. Nor should we ever try to forget it. 9/11 did a lot of things to this country, and to us. It reminded us of the reality of evil. That was evil – pure, diabolical evil. There were some on the right who claimed that it was God’s punishment for our wayward lifestyle. That’s not right – it was just evil. On the left, there were those who said, "Well, we deserved it because we are not a good nation." They’re wrong, too. It was evil. Just like Hitler was evil, and Stalin was evil, and Caligula was evil. We had forgotten that. World War II had faded away from our memory. We had forgotten that there are men of evil, who want to hurt us and kill us. We don’t need to be reminded of that, today.

But 9/11 did a lot more than just remind us of the reality of evil. It brought back to our consciences the reality of great good – great good in the world, and especially in this beloved country of ours. It reminded us of our common brotherhood, that we are a nation of friends. So many stories demonstrate that. I remember seeing one report of an African-American man and a Puerto Rican in Times Square at a Navy enlistment station. I smiled when I saw the report because one of them was too fat, and one was too old, and I knew they couldn’t be accepted. But the African-American said, "I never realized how much I loved my country, and I want to serve and defend her now." There’s a story too, about a woman on a bus in New York City. She got on and put some fare in and the bus driver said "No, no fares today." And the bus was crowded, and one lady got up and got off and there was an empty seat, and everyone was saying, "You sit down." "No, you sit down." Now, these are New Yorker’s! "You sit down." There was an English woman, you could hear her accent, and one New York lady said to her, "I’m sorry you are seeing New York at it’s worst." And she said, "No, dear, I am seeing New York at it’s best." I was stranded in Hartford, Connecticut, and had to get back. Of course, the flights were cancelled, so I rented a car. And I drove it across the country. It was quite an experience. I got to St. Louis on Saturday morning. The flights were back in the air, and so I took a flight home so I could be with my people and my parish that weekend. When I was in the airport, I bought two newspapers and I gave the sales clerk a $10 bill. His name was Mohammed, in the Southwest terminal in St. Louis. He’s probably still there. I looked at him as he gave me my change, and I said "Salam alaichem." "Peace be with you." The only Arabic I knew. The only Arabic we needed to know. And he grabbed my hands, so that we were hands and the money, and he was very sad. You can imagine. I admire his courage for wearing his name. He grabbed my hands with that money and he said, "Alaichem salam." "And also with you, peace." And his eyes were dripping with water. I went downstairs to get some money out of an ATM. This cop, his name was Hiram Blois and he says, "Father, can I have your blessing?" And I stopped and laid hands on him and I blessed him, and everyone was looking. I blessed him and I got on this long escalator and was half way up the escalator and he yells, "Hey, Father! If you get stuck today, give me a call. You can stay in my house." Because there were some bomb threats, and we didn’t know if we would ever get out.

You know, that week stripped away our indifference to one another. And it let us see each other for who we are, as friends and children of a common God. Didn’t it? This evil act. Didn’t it? And we learned to pray again. "Oh, my God!" That’s a beautiful prayer. That’s not taking the Lord’s name in vain. "Oh, my God!" You hear that, in the films, with the second plane, particularly, impacting. "Oh, my God!" That is a natural (well, that’s one of them, there’s a few others that come out), it’s a natural, and that’s the Holy Spirit inside us speaking and praying. One young girl said, "Father, I want to pray, but all I can do is cry." I told her, "That’s prayer." Americans didn’t cry, we wept. As Jesus wept over Jerusalem, America wept over New York. For the first time I understood the scripture, "We do not know how to pray as we aught, so the Holy Spirit expresses himself within us through cries and supplications to the Lord." And we prayed that week. And God was pleased with us. Not because He needs prayer, it adds nothing to His greatness. But prayer changes us. The one who prays becomes beautiful in God’s sight.

9/11 was a reality check of the reality of life – it’s shortness – and how weak we are. I remember seeing those towers when they were built. I guess it was in the early 70’s. I went up and had dinner with a cousin of mine. I remember standing at the base and you couldn’t …. And if someone had said, "Do you think someone could knock these down?" And I said, "Don’t be foolish." The towers were built to withstand earthquakes and tornadoes, hurricanes of hundreds of miles an hour. Well, they fell down. We think we’re so strong. We are not strong at all. We are very weak, and 9/11 reminded us of that. How short is life.

Fr. Michael Judge, the chaplain for the fire department, lost his life that day. He was ministering to a firefighter who was dying (the firefighter had been hit by a body), and then some debris hit Fr. Michael and he was dead. The firemen took his body to a nearby church, laid him at the altar and prayed. And then went back, as they would say, "to the job." Michael Judge was known to say this to everyone every day, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans for tomorrow." It took them many months to remove the debris of that scene, but in a second the debris of our minds was cleared. And we actually saw very clearly the reality of life and death that day.

9/11 reminded us that we must repent. America’s chaplain, Billy Graham, said, "We need a spiritual renewal in America. We need to repent." And we do. And it reminded us of the value and the sacredness of the human person. That day cost this nation, I don’t know how much, hundreds of billions of dollars. But that was never a thought in anyone’s mind that day. It was the lives that troubled us – the loss of innocent life. How sacred is the human person. And for some reason, as I watched the tragedy unfolding in Connecticut, I had two dominant thoughts. The first one was, certainly many of those people were in sin who died, and I never felt closer to them, and I just asked the Lord to give them a break that day. The second thought was strange, I thought of the women who were pregnant who perished, some of whom didn’t even know they were pregnant. And when they got to heaven, there was their child. "Who are you?" "Hi, ma!" I don’t know why I thought of that, but it’s interesting.

9/11 reminded us that we are spirit as well as flesh. The Spirit of God resides in us. As I drove across the country, every hour or so you come across a dirty movie thing, you know, along the highway, triple X. And as I saw them I said there’s no one in there that day. For a week or so, lust left us. Then it came back. Because there was no room for it, because God’s grace was so overpowering at this time. And I bet you there were a lot of babies born on June 11. I bet you people went home and made babies that night, all across America. People who said, "No, let’s not wait. I know we don’t have.… Lets get this bill paid first. I’m sure we …." They said, "Let’s have a baby. Now." Because that’s more important than anything else – human life. Look at what this day did to us, this tragic, awful day. It is a reminder that we are made in God’s image. And God has guts – like those firemen, and cops, and the people in the Pentagon. And like those heroes on the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania. That’s guts. That’s courage. You know, firemen are like German Sheppard’s – they’re loyal. I don’t know how bright they are. When they smell smoke, they go to it. We all run away – they attack it. Because there may be someone there they can save. And someone said to me, "They didn’t know they were going to die." I don’t believe that. I think they knew they were going to die. Bobby Holton is a friend of mine, the Assistant Chief of the Albuquerque Fire Department. He trained more than half of the 343 firefighters that died that day. He knew many of them. And he told me, as they were going in all the doors with all their stuff, the chief was there. And everyone looked at the chief and they said, ‘Don’t worry about it, Chief. We’ve got it.’" But the chief said he knew in looking at their faces, and that they knew, they were going to die. And they went anyway. One fireman was asked, "What were they thinking of?" He said, "I don’t know what they were thinking of, but I was thinking, ‘Now, how am I going to get this stuff up to the 75^th floor?’" They were just thinking of the job. Heroic. Absolutely heroic. Today in America, firemen are our heroes and business tycoons are the villains. A lot’s happened in a year.

I remember the scene of all those ambulances lined up, remember that? They had all got to the scene and their doors were open, and all of those rescue workers died. There was no one to come back to the ambulances. There must have been a hundred of them. They were all dead. Dead. And our military response, how efficient it was. And how brave were our soldiers and their families, and our Marines and airmen. Thank God for them. What a piece of work is man, Shakespeare said that. What a piece of work is man. Because he’s made, she’s made, in God’s image. We’re not just another creature inhabiting the earth. We are God’s jewels, the crown jewels of His creation. And it’s proven, too, that New Yorkers are made of stronger stuff than their buildings. Even Texans liked New York that week.

And 9/11 helped our children grow up. You don’t own something until you suffer for it. I don’t know why, it just works that way. A young girl said to me, "I never realized how much I loved my country." She was crying. Many of our kids lived in a land of peace and comfort and stuff. Toys, and you know, and they grew up that way. And that day’s going to prepare them to be good citizens, and to lead the rest of us when we’re old. God used the tragedy of 9/11 to change us. My fear, our fear, is that we can forget that and revert back to our old form. How is it possible, that so much good can come out of so much bad? The answer is behind me, on the wall. Look at the crucifix – the means of our salvation. God can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. There’s no way to salvation except through that cross. I never understood, well, I understood it but not as well, as I have understood it this past year. And you, too, right? From suffering, from evil, comes great good. Because God is God, and the cross tells us that. The question really is not as we look back a year, but as we look forward, where do we go from here? Where do we want to go? 9/11 and the week following in the United States was filled with grace. God just blew tons and tons of grace into us – a storm of grace. Grace is defined as disposition to, or an act or instance of kindness, courtesy and clemency; ease and suppleness of movement or bearing; the quality or state of being considerate or thoughtful. Grace – unmerited divine assistance given man for his regeneration or sanctification. Grace. Grace visited us that day. And I hope She’s still around.

If you look up "remember" in the dictionary, you’re given an example of how to use it. "Remember the facts until the test is over" is the example. We need to remember 9/11 until our test is over, individually and as a nation. So we thank God for His grace. And we ask God to bless those who are still grieving and hurting, and to bless our president as he leads us in a very dangerous world.