The Last Statistic of All: Not 7 Times but 77 Times



The Twin Towers Before 9/11 







The Twin Towers During 9'11











The Last Statistic of All: Not 7 Times but 77 Times

September 11, 2011, 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Sirach 28: 1-7 Romans 14:7-9 Matthew 18:21-35

First reading from Sirach: “Hate not your neighbor.”

The vengeful will suffer the Lord God’s vengeance, for He remembers their sins in detail. Forgive your neighbor's injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven. If a man nurses anger against another, can he then demand compassion from the Lord? If he shows no pity for another, can he then plead for his own sins? If one who is but flesh cherishes wrath, who will forgive him his sins? Remember your last days and set enmity aside. Remember death and decay, and cease from sin! Remember the commandments and hate not your neighbor. Remember the Most High's covenant and overlook people’s faults.

The word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

Alleluia, alleluia.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew

Glory to you, Lord.

The Gospel: Not 7 times but 77 times

Peter approached Jesus and asked him, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive? As many as 7 times?" Jesus answered, "I say to you, not 7 times but 77 times. That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt. At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.' Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan.

But when that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, saying, 'Pay back what you owe!' Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' But he refused. Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison until he paid back the debt. Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair. His master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?' Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart."

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

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Introduction

A timely parable

This great parable about forgiveness is always read on the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A. It is intriguing and somewhat ominous that this 24th Sunday with its parable about forgiveness should land this year on Sunday, September 11th 20ll -- the 10th anniversary of that very horrific event which brought down the Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan and 2,752 innocent human being, and which greatly challenged a nation to forgive. This Sunday’s parable about forgiveness is, indeed, timely.

One decade ago todayOn September 11th 2001, one decade ago today, two hijacked 767s crashed into the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, bringing down New York City’s signature Twin Towers and murdering 2,752 innocent human beings. That horrendous event reduced the WTC to smoldering and mountainous heaps of brick and mortar. It took a ten-month operation working day and night to haul away 2,000,000 tons of debris. Among the rubble were rescued 20,000 body-parts! September 11th 2001 ushered in the age of terrorism which now preoccupies us 24/7, consumes our psychic and financial resources, and robs us of a simple abiding peace which we used to take for granted. September 11th 2001 was an event of such apocalyptic proportions that the nation now dates time as `Before 9/11’ and `After 9/11.’

Bin Laden’s `pay-back’

The attack on the WTC and the deaths of 3,000 innocent human beings was Osama bin Laden’s `pay-back’ for U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Bin Laden (killed by Navy SEALs on May 2, 2011) believed that that U.S policy in the Middle East had oppressed and killed Muslims. At first he denied but later admitted his responsibility for 9/11. He also believed that only the restoration of Shari'a (a code of religious laws for Muslims) would "set things right” in the Muslim world.

A faithful Muslim

Islam is an Arabic word meaning `to surrender,’ and a faithful Muslim is `one who surrenders to God.’ He surrenders himself to God with the `Five Pillars of Islam.’ (1) He ardently professes that only Allah is God, and Mohammad is his Messenger (Shahada). (2) He falls to his knees five times a day for ritual prayer facing Mecca - the holy birthplace of Mohammad (Salat). (3) He puts aside a fixed percentage for almsgiving (Zakat). (4) He goes on a once-in-a-life-time pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj). (5) He fasts from all food from dawn to dusk during the month of Ramadan (Sawm). This year Ramadan ran from August 1 to August 29.

Hijacked Muslims and a hijacked Church

That’s the faithful Muslim. But then there’s the hijacked Muslim. That’s a Muslim who is driven by religious fanaticism. It was fanatical Muslims `inspired’ by Osama bin Laden, who on 9/11 took over two 767s and flew them into the Twin Towers, shouting “Allah Akbar!” (God is Great!), as they murdered 2,752 innocent human beings. Such fanaticism is not characteristic of most Muslims, but it does represent a sizeable part of Islam that can’t be ignored or denied.

Though we Catholics would like to forget it, we remember that the institution of the Church in times past had also been hijacked by religious fanatics. It was a hijacked ecclesiastical institution which persecuted Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) for saying that the earth goes around the sun, and not the sun around the earth. It even pursued St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) for her `suspect’ mystical writings. The hijacked institution’s most signature victim, however, was St. Joan of Arc (1412– 1431), `the Maid of Orléans," whom the institution burned at the stakes for nebulous charges of heresy. In the Crusades, the Inquisitions and the bloody religious wars of the 16th and 17th centuries, Christians have spilled much more blood than Muslims have.

A hijacked Christian pastor

The Rev. Terry Jones, pastor of the small Christian Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, has great fears (rightly or wrongly?) that the U.S. will become like Europe where Muslims, as they grow in population, try to take over and impose their Shari'a law on others. Last year Jones sparked international outrage for declaring Sept. 11 "International Burn a Quran Day." He encouraged Americans to burn the Quran, which is for Muslims what the Bible is for Christians. After some thought, however, Jones felt that burning the Muslim’s Bible might elicit a violent response which could kill many innocent people. He suggested instead “shredding or shooting or dunking the Quran in water!”

Is Rev. Jones a hijacked Christian pastor, as he threatens to burn or shred or shoot or dunk in water the Muslim’s holy Quran? Has he been hijacked from his own holy Bible which warns him in the first reading today that “if a man nurses anger against another, he cannot expect compassion from the Lord?” Has he been hijacked from his own holy Bible which bids him in the gospel reading today “to forgive not 7 times but 77 times?”

A Christian’s response to 9/11

Just a few hours after the nation experienced 9/11, Pax Christi USA released a statement the very next day, affirming what must be the Christian’s response to that apocalyptic event. He must be a follower of the Jesus who told Peter that he must forgive not 7 times but 77 times. He must be a follower of the nonviolent Jesus who said, “You have heard that it was said, `An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” (Mt 5:38–39) The Pax Christi statement in part read:

We recognize that as the reality of the magnitude of loss becomes clear, our grief will soon move toward rage. As people of faith and disciples of
the nonviolent Jesus, we must be willing, even now in this darkest moment, to commit ourselves and urge our sisters and brothers, to resist the impulse to vengeance. We must resist the urge to demonize and dehumanize any ethnic group as ‘enemy.’ We must find the courage to break the spiral of violence that so many in our nation, we fear, will be quick to embrace.

Imagine what courage it took to speak words of forgiveness and non-violence on September 12, 2001, to a nation overwhelmed with unbelief and grief, and soon to be overwhelmed by anger and a desire for revenge. Imagine what courage it took to speak words of forgiveness and non-violence to a nation about to be faced with the grim task of hauling away 2,000,000 tons of debris, and of gathering up 20,000 body-parts.

Forgiveness – hard work even for Jesus’ heavenly Father!

Strange to say, forgiveness seems to be hard work even for Jesus’ heavenly Father. In the gospel reading today the heavenly Father doesn’t seem to live up to His own standard of forgiveness, for the reading ends strangely with Jesus invoking a disturbing image of God as a torturer: “So will my heavenly Father do to you (hand you over to torturers), unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.” (Mt. 18:35) Forgiveness is hard work not only for the heavenly Father, but even more so for all of us. On a good day, we might forgive 1 time. 7 times seems very hard. But Jesus’ 77 times is just about impossible!

Conclusion
The last statistic of all

The horrendous event of 9/11 2001 is told with overwhelming statistics:

2 imposing 110-story towers costing $400 million in Lower Manhattan were reduced to ashes and rubble on 9/11, when struck by two hijacked 767s.

2,752 innocent human beings were also reduced to ashes with the Twin Towers on 9/11.

2,000,000 tons of debris were hauled away by an operation working day and night for 10 months.

20,000 body-parts were found among the debris, and were gathered for appropriate burial.

343 firefighters of the NYC Fire Department died in the ashes of the WTC, and among them was their very beloved chaplain, Franciscan Fr. Mychal Judge, who rushed to the WTC to administer the last sacrament to a dying fellow-fireman and was struck by falling burning debris and died on the spot, and who now goes down in history as 9/11’s first and most famous martyr.

3,000 mourners attended Fr. Judge’s burial Mass which was celebrated by Cardinal Edward Egan and attended by former President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and daughter Chelsea on September 15, at St. Francis of Assisi Church in midtown Manhattan. And when a `Month's Mind Memorial’ was held for New York City’s very beloved priest on October 11, 2001, an endless flow of priests, nuns, lawyers, cops, firefighter, homeless people, rock-and-rollers, recovering alcoholics, gays and lesbians, local politicians and middle-age couples from the suburbs streamed into Good Shepherd Chapel on Ninth Ave, an Anglican church, to do a memorial for Catholic Fr. Judge.

Among all these stunning statistics describing the horrendous event of 9/11 stands the last statistic of all: To Peter asking whether he must fprgive a brother 7 times, Jesus replies, "No, not 7 times, but 77 times."