Appropriate Humility for September 11

I saw this devotional today and thought it appropriate given the dubious anniversary of today's date. Eight years have passed. In some ways it seems like only yesterday we were glued to our TV sets watching the horror. In other ways, it seems like something that didn't take place in my lifetime.

In remembering this day, I hope we can eventually find ways to have healing and to move toward the Kingdom Jesus is ushering in, rather than simply remembering the massive loss of life and the evil that perpetrated it.

In my own simple way and in my own context I want to be an instrument of peace and healing as Jesus visualized for us in Matt 5. Will you join me?

As long as we think that we alone have to save the world, we become arrogant in our methods, impatient in our attitudes and quick in our solutions. Instead, we must seek the patience and peaceof God. The man and woman of God are content to let God work through their lives for some little bit of unity. Wherever you are, let God create a little bit of unity and communion today. I believe that's what God 's doing on earth. I know one religious sister who sees her primary call as bestowing "benevolent smiles" on everybody she meets. Whata threat she must be to disunity!

If Jesus is to be risen among us, we must each individually and collectively surrender to a love and mystery that is greater than our hearts. We must humbly admit that we really don't know much at all. We have few perfectly right answers it seems to me, and even fewer conclusions that are always true. All we can be is what Jesus was: present and enfleshed. In the end it seems to me there's only one gospel: Jesus incarnate, Jesus crucified, Jesus resurrected. Solidarity in suffering and in ecstasy is God's gift to the world. To be in the Church is to be willing to be part of that cosmic rhythm and cooperate with God to create little bits of unity wherever we can.

(Richard Rohr, Adapted from The Spiritual Family and the Natural Family - out of print)