The twenty-fifth anniversary of September 11th took me by surprise. I am not saying that I didn’t mentally know that this year was a milestone, but this morning hit me like a ton of bricks as one of my best friends from college texted me the image above. I was unprepared for what I felt and still feel. The mixture of anger and loss, though distant, is still there. But it is mixed with a strange melancholic nostalgia for the days and years that followed which were full of prayer and a unified outpouring of love from a defiant nation in the face of a horrific attack. It must be somewhat akin to what my grandparents felt in 1966 twenty-five years after Pearl Harbor since even sixty years later they were still filled with emotion when they’d talk about it.
Firefighters face the steel cross from the World Trade Center.
I was slowly flooded with emotion this morning as I attended the memorial service at Station #1 in Lakewood, Ohio. It was more like a rising tide than a wave. Along with the hosting fire company there was a group of high school students who sang the National Anthem and maybe 25 others gathered together. The high school students hadn’t even been born in 2001! I stood next to two men my age (probably in their forties) or a little older. In those ten minutes of ceremony I was transported back to Fall of 2001 not just in memory but in attitude. It's hard to explain, but the aura changed. After the ceremony, the three of us marveled that it had been twenty-five years and how much was different. We shared our stories of where we were when the first plane hit and how we all thought it was an accident only to be bewildered and shocked when planes hit the other building and Pentagon. Here we were, three strangers talking as if we were long friends about where we were when the planes hit twenty-five years ago. None of us had lost anyone in the attacks (to my knowledge, at least) and yet even a quarter of a century later those attacks and the heroic response was still bringing us together.
During the ceremony I was struck by the fact that this brotherhood of the firemen remembered not only their own 343 fallen in the NYPD, but also the lives of first responders, military personal, and civilians lost on that day at the Pentagon and on Flight 93 - a total of 2,977. As the flag was lowered to half-mast and the bell tolled in front of the cross from the World Trade Center, I was grateful that in small towns around the country firefighters were doing the same - quietly gathering Americans together to remember, commemorate and pray.
For me, it was not just a time to remember those who had fallen that day but also those who would be impacted in the coming years; a young school teacher named Andrea who attended St. Anselm and who I’d administered last rites to in the hospital. She died years after inhaling 9-11 debris dust; friends from my class who joined up in response to the attacks to fight the war on terror and returned changed men. I also recalled how my world changed that day as a freshman in a political science class. We went from bantering about party politics to discussing the truly deep topics.
As I reflect on all of this I think the firefighters who put on today’s ceremony were acting as priests in a way. They were bringing people together. They were remembering and commending their own, yes but also the others heroes and victims of that day. They were even revering a cross. They were providing us all with an opportunity to unite, reflect, and pray. I am grateful to them not just for the heroic work they do daily but for also rendering this service of guarding the memory and giving opportunity for us to enter into America at her best.
Finally, as I walked back across the street from the firehouse to the church I recalled that as Christians we gather, pray, remember, and worship the ultimate embodied model and author of heroism, Jesus Christ. Why does 9-11 impact us so? Whether you’re a Christian or not, you cannot deny that the chief thing that moves our hearts twenty-five years later is the courageous sacrificial acts that reflect Jesus’ words and action on the cross. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (Jn. 15:13).
Men like Fr. Mychal Judge arrived at ground zero and ran into the tower to rescue, comfort and pray for strangers never came out. Welles Crowther known as “the man in the red bandana” was an equities trader who worked on the 98th floor of the World Trade Center but kept running into the crumbling building saving others until it collapsed on him. Todd Beamer, a husband and father who attacked the hijackers on Flight 93 keeping it from striking yet another target with the words “Let’s Roll.”
So here as I sit at my desk twenty-five years later reflecting and writing on the events of September 11th 2001, I am grateful that I did not miss the opportunity to commemorate of this day. I am grateful for the Lakewood Firefighters. I am grateful for moments that draw Americans together to commemorate our best. And I am grateful to worship a God that works within his servants showing just what it is that He has called all humans to be - the image of Christ. September 11th tragically gave opportunity for people to rise to reflect Jesus words with the attention of a nation much in need of heroes. Part of our national story is when ordinary men and women face great trial and rise to overcome it. Twenty-five years ago heroes could not overcome evil attacks but did blunted their wickedness with courage and grace only God could inspire. We still need Jesus. And we still need heroes that reflect him. May God give us grateful hearts and supply us with heroes who emulate Christ.
