To heal from trauma such as 9/11, we must remember and let God provide hope

Last Monday, the Town of Bluffton held a ceremony to commemorate the events surrounding the attack against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

It was a ceremony with participation from the Junior ROTC, the Town of Bluffton and The Church of the Cross children’s choir. Along with council member Dan Wood and inspiring vocal performances of “The Star Spangled Banner” and “America,” as well as a traditional bag pipes performance reminiscent of the police and first responders’ role in New York City, the town did a great job at presenting a dignified and touching feeling of remembrance.

In addition to these wonderful participants, three representatives from the clergy delivered remarks on the themes of faith, grieving and hope. The Rev. Therese Lee of the Unity Church, the Rev. John Black (a retired Navy chaplain) of Campbell AME Church and I spoke.

Remembering the events of 9/11 is a crucial duty that all communities in America should recognize. The Town of Bluffton understands the role that the faith community plays in providing insight on some of the most important moral and spiritual issues that do not often appear in the public’s eye but are always part of the nation’s conscience.

We all remember where we were on that day. We can see with our inner eyes the trauma and the fear watching all the events take place on television. And we followed the events long after the initial attack. The stories of survival, the security issues, and the first responders became a central part of our understanding about what police and fire department officers do for us. There was that unity of purpose and support that pervaded America.

The first time I visited the crater at the site of the former World Trade Center in New York, I gazed at the remnants, including gigantic black sheets of mourning hanging on top of the surrounding buildings. Memorabilia were on fences that cut off this huge area that once housed the great twin towers.

I could not foresee the trajectory of how the government nor the American people would cope with this national trauma. I could not feel or sense hope in the air.

Several years later, New York constructed the 9/11 Memorial Museum. I toured this sacred space through its many exhibits with the manifold artifacts that were saved from the attack. Facing these artifacts, I could begin to grasp the degree of destruction and, most importantly, the stories of those who perished in this horrific attack.

That memorial museum will always be a reminder of what happened that day. Hope appeared between the pieces of shrapnel on view for the public. Hope appeared when I listened to exhibits that echoed the names of the dead. Ironically, hope started to percolate when I cleared the tears from my eyes and I could behold the scope of the death.

For the untold millions in the New York metropolitan area and throughout the nation, finding hope for those who mourn the loss of their loved ones is much more complicated. The issues impacting each mourning family are complex and personal. It is difficult to understand how people rebuild their lives. The anger and sense of loss make hope appear to be a small solitary plant that has barely taken root in the parched dry soil of a barren desert.

In my faith tradition and its sacred texts, there is a saying: “All beginnings are difficult.”

The long-term generational struggle of the survivors of the Holocaust or those of 9/11 both reveal that hope is a generational process. That applies to America as well.

What is the beginning of coping with trauma? It is sanctifying memory. We cannot heal unless we remember. We cannot heal until we come to grips with memory as a mendicant.

Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner, wrote about memory and why it matters so much for us in remembering 9/11 as it meant for him to remember the ravages of the Holocaust.

“Remembering is a noble and necessary act. Just as man cannot live without dreams, he cannot live without hope. If dreams reflect the past, hope summons the future. Does this mean that our future can be built on a rejection of the past? Surely such a choice is not necessary. The two are not incompatible. The opposite of the past is not the future but the absence of future; the opposite of the future is not the past but the absence of past. The loss of one is equivalent to the sacrifice of the other.”

Wiesel concluded by reminding us of hope through the sufferings of Job from the Bible: “Job, our ancestor. Job, our contemporary. His ordeal concerns all humanity. Did he ever lose his faith? If so, he rediscovered it within his rebellion. He demonstrated that faith is essential to rebellion, and that hope is possible beyond despair. The source of his hope was memory, as it must be ours. Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair. I remember the killers, I remember the victims, even as I struggle to invent a thousand and one reasons to hope.”

This weekend, Jews celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the new year when the Jewish calendar begins all over again. Ten days later we observe the day of atonement Yom Kippur. It is a day of fasting when we ask God to forgive us for our transgressions. God asks us during these 10 days of repentance to make things right with our neighbors who we have offended as well as offer forgiveness.

None of this is possible unless we rely on our own memory. Remembering our own actions, like memory in general, makes all the difference in spiritual renewal for a healthy and happy new year.

May it be God’s will to remember those who perished at all places and sites who lost their lives on 9/11. Let God continue to provide consolation and strength for the survivors and their families who live every day with these memories. And may we as a nation work for hope that our nation can preserve this memory of 9/11 for the sake of the future that will bless our progeny and our nation.

Shalom.