Little Rosemary and a friend at the Missionaries of Charity's Daya Dan home for disabled children after Mass on September 11, 2018. It is that anniversary again, September 11th. Destruction came to our country 17 years ago yesterday. On that morning a great gust of wind woke me up at 5:45am (just before the south tower collapsed in New York) and I ran outside to see what had happened. A strange ceiling of Mammatus clouds loomed low over Modesto, and I went back inside to get ready for the day. I did my holy hour in the rectory chapel and then went to the church for 8am Mass. A crowd of confused people ran up to me saying New York had been attacked and one of the Trade Towers was down. “No one could take down those towers,” I said. But fall they did, these Towers of Financial Power, taking many lives with them.
“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my Word will not pass.” Yesterday morning I mused on these words while careening over ragged streets to “Daya Dan,” the sisters’ home for 65 “spastic children.” The sisters prepared me for their singing at Mass, which was … enthusiastic. In fact, the children were shouting the Word of God at the top of their lungs. Take little Rosemary, for instance: not only was she dizzyingly off-key, but she shouted out phrases half a second after everyone else. “Lord have mercy” the sisters sang sweetly, and a half second later Rosemary called out “Mercy!!!” Then she launched into the Gloria, but as there was no Gloria that day, a sister quickly clapped a hand over her mouth. Rosemary smiled with glee from behind sister’s benevolent hand while everyone else, including sister superior and the priest, did our best to suppress smiles.
They’ve built a new tower to replace the Towers that passed into oblivion in 2001. The human lives that passed away that day have not been replaced, but the simple word called out by a spastic girl in Calcutta will never pass away. That word is “mercy,” as in Lord Have Mercy. The terrorists had no mercy on America that day, and in retaliation America had no mercy on Bagdad. There is only One who is capable of real mercy, and little Rosemary in Calcutta knows His name.
After Mass the children all crowded around me and one of them pointed to the crucifix. “Jesus,” was all he said. Rosemary chimed in, shouting “Jesus!!! Jesus!!!”
“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my Word will not pass.” Yesterday morning I mused on these words while careening over ragged streets to “Daya Dan,” the sisters’ home for 65 “spastic children.” The sisters prepared me for their singing at Mass, which was … enthusiastic. In fact, the children were shouting the Word of God at the top of their lungs. Take little Rosemary, for instance: not only was she dizzyingly off-key, but she shouted out phrases half a second after everyone else. “Lord have mercy” the sisters sang sweetly, and a half second later Rosemary called out “Mercy!!!” Then she launched into the Gloria, but as there was no Gloria that day, a sister quickly clapped a hand over her mouth. Rosemary smiled with glee from behind sister’s benevolent hand while everyone else, including sister superior and the priest, did our best to suppress smiles.
They’ve built a new tower to replace the Towers that passed into oblivion in 2001. The human lives that passed away that day have not been replaced, but the simple word called out by a spastic girl in Calcutta will never pass away. That word is “mercy,” as in Lord Have Mercy. The terrorists had no mercy on America that day, and in retaliation America had no mercy on Bagdad. There is only One who is capable of real mercy, and little Rosemary in Calcutta knows His name.
After Mass the children all crowded around me and one of them pointed to the crucifix. “Jesus,” was all he said. Rosemary chimed in, shouting “Jesus!!! Jesus!!!”
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