Friday, September 11, 2020
It was a perfectly beautiful September morning, the sky deep blue without a cloud. The air was crisp, a harbinger of the fall to come. On the eleventh floor of the Newark Rodino Building while gazing at the skyline across the river the terrible sight of a plane crashing into a tower seized my being.
And a scant 16 minutes later in horror, I saw the second plane, the South Tower. As we exited the building, none of us knew what to expect. My friend was on the 8th floor in the building next to the federal building and the elevators had shut down. She was pregnant, very pregnant, and together we walked down eight flights together.
Panic was the word of the day as the panic of the Covid-19 crisis tempts us into the baser instincts of our nature. We remember those who died, those who sacrificed their lives for others just as we remember the health care workers who have cared for others where we fear to go.
Prayer for the Day
On this day, O God, we remember those embraced into your eternity:
Firefighters and police officers who died trying to save others,
Janitors and kitchen workers, unseen but always there, and
Executives in their expensive suits, joined in death as they never were in life,
The many unknown heroes who thought of another person first.
May we remember the nameless victims of injustice, the hungry,
the young without a future and the old caught in the tyranny of history.
May we not forget the abandoned, the poor,
and those for whom all hope seems gone.
In the name of him who sears our memories,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
If we learn nothing else from this tragedy we learn that life is short and there is no time for hate.
Sandy Dahl, wife of Jason Dahl, pilot of flight 93 (1957–2001)
Even the smallest act of service, the simplest act of kindness is a way to honor those we lost, a way to reclaim the spirit of unity that followed September 11.
Barack Obama, President
God is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.
And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O God, have not forsaken those who seek you.
Psalm 9:9–10