Message from Fr. Manny Alvarez
Church of the Little Flower
My Dear Friends:
As Catholics, we grow up hearing heroic stories about martyrs who gave their lives for our faith and shed their blood in distant lands centuries ago. Martyrdom isn’t something we think will come to our doorstep. Even today, we hear of Christians being slaughtered in places like Nigeria, where Fr. Uko and Fr. Stephen hail from, or even in Sri Lanka where Fr. Francis is from where a few years ago Catholics gathered for Easter Mass and were targeted in coordinated attacks. These are things we hear about happening “over there” but not here in America.
Twenty-five years ago, “over there” arrived on our doorstep, and we witnessed firsthand that martyrdom had arrived at our shores. Our world changed in an instant when innocent lives going about their day had their lives taken from them when terrorism arrived in a radical way to our country. What we witnessed in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001 was the rise of heroes and martyrs. We saw firefighters and first responders rushing into burning towers to save lives, only to give their lives instead at the service of their brothers and sisters. We saw a country united in their grief. No one could have possibly imagined that this would ever happen here on this continent. Even though it had happened at Pearl Harbor in 1941, that still seemed like “over there.”
It was time for a new generation to stand up and stand united as the greatest generation did during World War II.
While that unity was strong in the weeks and months after 9/11, sadly it did not last. Unity seems like a dream now. Divisiveness is the norm in our country today, and I dare say, even in the Church where I caution people constantly not to look at Church events and news through a political lense. Unity is what our Lord prayed for the night before he died.
Unity is what this solemn anniversary calls for. We constantly hear the refrain to never forget. Sadly, so many have indeed forgotten the sacrifices of those first responders who ran into the fire, or those first military men and women who enlisted on September 12th.
We have forgotten what they taught us because they personified that radical love that Christ taught us: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends (John 15:13).”
So, as people of faith, we must take up the cause of unity and prayer. We are a great nation with a noble purpose. We are a nation that began with seless men laying down their lives for the sake of liberty. That selessness has come to the forefront again and again when history demanded it. But we seem to have lost our way, so we turn to those martyrs, who we pray are in heaven, to teach us to love as they loved. That is how we honor their memory and truly never forget the sacrifice they made and the unity that they inspired.
God of peace, bring your peace to our violent world: peace in the hearts of all men and women and peace among the nations of the earth. Turn to your way of love those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred.
God of understanding, overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy, we seek your light and guidance as we confront such terrible events. Grant that those whose lives were spared may live so that the lives lost here may not have been lost in vain. Comfort and console us, strengthen us in hope, and give us the wisdom and courage to work tirelessly for a world where true peace and love reign among nations and in the hearts of all. (Prayer of Pope Benedict XVI at Ground Zero 4/20/2008)
God Bless You All,
Fr. Manny Alvarez
Pastor