I cannot remember in my lifetime a day of remembrance as solemn as 9-11-11: ten years removed from perhaps the most horrific, and even apocalyptic, tragedy to strike America. For those of us who remember 9-11-01, the images of skyscrapers ablaze, bodies free falling, and people screaming in terror in and around New York City are indelibly etched in mind, heart, spirit, and soul. So powerful and defining was this moment that it hardly seems like ten years ago. The way that it so profoundly changed our lives and sense of security, it might as well have been ten days ago. One of the questions this ten-year anniversary of 9-11 poses is, of course: how to remember?
In posing this question, it is more than a little ironic that the scripture readings for all the major Christian denominations this Sunday focus on forgiveness and mercy. The unmistakable connection that can so easily and readily be made is that in remembering the victims of 9-11, those who survived them, and those affected by the two wars fought because of 9-11, we are called to consider the role of forgiveness and mercy in this process. The standard of forgiveness set forth by Jesus in the Gospel is not about how many times we forgive, but how deeply we forgive. Jesus turns Peter's question about "how many times should one forgive" on it's head by answering that forgiveness isn't merely about quantity but quality: we are to forgive from the heart - meaning, we are to forgive at depth.
The human heart is very much like the Ground Zero memorial in the sense that it is akin to an abyss. The human heart is virtually unbounded in it's capacity for receiving and containing innumerable experiences along with all the emotions associated with those experiences. And, while we cannot control all that we experience in life (such as the terrorist attacks of 9-11), we can regulate what we receive into our hearts and what we let go of.
A great example of the role that mercy and forgiveness can play in remembering 9-11 comes from many of the victim's loved ones who volunteered to read names at the Reflecting Absence memorial. As the names of the victims were solemnly read, sentiments of love, fond memories, and longing were also expressed. It is clear that many of these persons have chosen to remember 9-11 by holding on tightly to love and letting go of hatred, bitterness, and vengeance.
Far from a mere moral or ethical teaching on the praiseworthiness of the act of forgiveness, in telling us to forgive from our hearts, Jesus is giving us direction on what to cling to in our lives and what to let go of so that our hearts, like his, can become an "abyss of forgiveness" and an abyss of love.
