Castings: September 11, 2026

More Than Makes Sense

Twenty five years ago. I imagine many of you, like me, can still remember what you were doing on the morning of September 11th, 2001.

We waited. We watched. We prayed. We wept.

Horror. Disbelief. Sorrow. Anger. Grief.

It has been twenty five years since we were reminded of the power of hatred and violence. We cried out to our Lord, who knew our pain, having suffered a violent death on the cross. What do we do with this? What is our response when violence and hatred have the loudest voices in the room?

Jesus calls for us to forgive. How often, Peter asks. More than is reasonable, more than makes common sense, Jesus replies. The world would have us harbor anger and hatred; Jesus compels us to forgive. Forgiveness does not mean forgetting. Forgiveness does not cancel the pain of the past, nor does it abolish the injury that happened. It means moving forward in a way that allows us to live with our injury while keeping the injury from constantly re-injuring us.

Where are the places in us that need to seek forgiveness? Where are the places where we might offer forgiveness, that it might set us free?

As we navigate what it means to live the Gospel imperative in the world today, and as we remember what happened 25 years ago, the prayer attributed to St Francis is helpful to me. Perhaps it will be for you, too.

Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that we may not so much seek to
be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.