Santa Clara University

A Prayer for Peace, commemorating September 11

Homily delivered at noon Mass in Mission Church on Sept. 11, 2003

by Paul Locatelli, S.J.

Last week, Santa Clara had three delegations in El Salvador.  We converged at Mass on Sunday morning, where I was invited to say a few words at the homily.  I ended by saying: "As God blesses you, you are a blessing to us."

The congregation was campesinos– the 80-plus percent of Salvadoran citizens who are poor and most of them still suffering from more than a decade of civil war.  Half of the citizens are so hungry that they struggle to stay alive.  Many of them suffered and lost family members during the civil war when 70 to 80,000 Salvadorans died.  

One woman told us a story of how she lost two of her children, ages 3 and 5.  As she was fleeing into the hills away from armed conflict, the daughter in her arms went limp.  When she checked, her daughter was dead from a piece of shrapnel that had pierced her heart.  I could not help from choking up as I listened to her.  Her pain had to be the same as the family members who lost loved ones on 9/11.

She amazed me.  What a wonderful and holy person she was.  She was deeply affected by armed conflict and death. Her faith was not abstract, shallow or hollow.  She knew it was not God’s will that killed her children, but soldiers working for her government who were funded by the United States.  She knew that she had been wronged, but she did not harbor hate for those who killed her children or for us who funded the war.

Today, she does not judge or condemn.  Of course, she wants justice but has been able to move beyond those who cursed, abused and persecuted her and her family and friends.  She has been able to move beyond death and suffering to forgiveness.   Forgiveness has been part of her healing.

Jesus must have been thinking about someone like her when he was teaching his disciples.  And, Paul echoes the same message in today’s first reading.

We hear the same thing from many others who teach us about love as Jesus taught his friends.

I heard the same depth of faith and love from Deora Bodley’s parents over the loss of their daughter and from Catlin Duffey and her family over the loss of her brother.   On Monday in New York City, there was a memorial Mass.One person caught its importance: "Never forgetting but starting to move forward." 

Justice, not vengeance or revenge, must still be pursued.  The Salvadoran mother, the parents and families and friends of the 9/11 victims, and those who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq – regardless of their religious affiliation – teach us the meaning of today’s scriptures.  

Jesus is challenging us to overcome evil and hatred with goodness, to meet curses with kindness.  He is warning us to avoid the circle of anger that the terrorists wanted to begin.  Rather he is telling us to take the path of healing and peace, not of conflict.

This takes what Paul is talking about.  The families of 9/11 victims, even after two years, talk about love because, in the face of evil and death, they, in the final analysis, clothed themselves with humility, patience, and compassion... and they learned that forgiveness is possible and part of the quest for justice.  Because these virtues lead to the greatest of all virtues... love.    They are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved –  not the terrorists who neither represent people of Muslim faith nor are doing God’s will not even political leaders who claim God is on their side.

I pray that peace will rule in the hearts of all and may we always believe love is stronger than hate, hope stronger than despair, and faith stronger than disbelief.