Homily

As you know it has been ten years since the terrorist attacks in New York and elsewhere took the lives of over 3,000 Americans as well as some citizens of other countries. The print media, television, internet sites, and news agencies are all focusing a great deal of attention on this anniversary. And I can see that there are some good aspects to all this coverage and the re-telling of what happened on that day. For me, it is a reminder to pray for the repose of the souls who lost their lives in New York and Pennsylvania, and to remember their families who are still alive and sharing those painful memories and the loss of their loved ones. So those prayers are a great way for me to participate in this anniversary.

But otherwise, for me, personally I have no desire to go over all those details again, or to watch films of the planes crashing, or the buildings collapsing, or hear the screams of people running for their lives. I have no interest in hearing from people who survived, or about unknown, unusual incidents. I guess my question is, after you've seen the videos, after you've heard from the people, after you have read this story, and that piece, and that column--after you've done all that (and I mean not just you but anyone), after you have done all that, then what?

What do you think? How do you feel? What will you say? What should you do? What would you do? What could you do? And I'm very sincere when I say this: I really would love to ask a whole bunch of people who spend time viewing those videos of crashes and the buildings falling, after they're done watching it all, I'd love to ask them, "And now, what?" What?

Please understand, I'm not trying to criticize anyone who reads about or watches, or listens to any pieces about the 9/11 attacks, even if I do not care to do so. We live in an age when there has been an explosion of information available to the average citizen. If we lived 100 years ago, the best we could do to remember or learn about such an important event would be to read what other people said about it, or maybe see a photo or two in the newspaper of the ruins of the buildings, and that would be it. How differently we can recall or review something like the 9/11 attacks today! There is a ton of information!

We can Google upon our computers, and we can read the opinions of not just a few commentators, but we have access to the writings of many hundreds of people all at our fingertips without ever leaving our homes. I can't even accurately guess at how much more information is available to us than was available to people 100 years ago. Should I say we have hundreds of times more material available to us, or thousands of times more information at our disposal than people did in 1911? I don't know, but you get the idea. Library! Encyclopedia!

But I will say there is one aspect, one element about information that has not improved in the past 100 years. We have all this information; now what do we do with it? How do we handle it, what does it mean for us, where does it take us, and what information is truly important for us to pay attention to?

So I wish to point out to you the advice that was given by the wisest person who ever lived on the face of the earth, when she was talking to just a couple of ordinary, everyday guys at a wedding about 2,000 years ago: "Do whatever He tells you." And we know what He says. We find it in Scripture, in the faith that comes to us in the Church. We find it in the Liturgy and even in our personal prayer.

We have an over-abundance of information today but there is not an over-abundance of wisdom to tell us how to use the information we have. Blessed are we to be disciples of a Master Who can show us and help us to live in genuine wisdom, act as people of virtue, and love with our whole heart, mind, and soul, both Him as well as our neighbor. Through the prayers of His most blessed Mother, whose birthday we continue to celebrate, may He save us both now and forever. Amen