The Transformation of Suffering
Reflections on September 11
& the Wedding Feast at Cana in Galilee

A Christian Perspective on September 11, 2001

    I happened to be in New York at the time of the tragedy of September 11, 2001 and felt the groundswell of grief, anguish, and indignation that rolled over the city and far afield. I found in other parts of the world where I went soon afterward a great sympathy for the United States, and a similar concern for the world. It became clearer after that day that this attack was basically an attack on humanity, not just New York or the United States. Indeed, there were, according to some estimates, eighty different nationalities represented in the towers at the time of their destruction.

    As I watched the terrible scene on the television, I had no immediate reaction. As the days passed on, I realized that at first no particular reaction was possible for me because of the overwhelming grief that pervaded every other reaction.

    In the days immediately following September 11, a lot of people were in a state of shock. That state of shock may well continue for many persons as the psychological effects of it gradually unfold over the months and years to come. We have little idea of all the ramifications of such a major event.

    What struck me most was the visible character of the event. This was a culmination of a whole series of other tragic, violent, and brutalizing events that have been building up over the past eighty to one hundred years. These may have been equally shocking events for the human family But in previous times, we were not aware of them to the degree that we are vulnerable to such tragedies now Modern technology-television, radio, the Internet, cellular phones-makes them instantaneously available. I would hazard a guess that this event was seen by most of the people in the world.

    What also seemed to me significant as I reflected on the event was that, at least since the First World War, there has been an ever-increasing disregard for innocent people in violent situations especially wars. Indeed, we might say that at least from the middle of the twentieth century it is safer in wartime to be in the military rather than to be a civilian. The equation between those killed in combat and those killed as a consequence of military action has become much more weighted on the side of the men, women, and children who happen to get in the way This new kind of war is called total war, meaning that everybody living in a country under attack, however innocent, or even opposed to the actions of its government, is considered an enemy.

Christ's Crucifixion

    September 11 was a visible tragedy I can think of other terrible tragedies, much more devastating in terms of the numbers of deaths than the destruction of the Twin Towers: the Holocaust, the Gulag, the two world wars, Rwanda, Cambodia, Vietnam, the cultural revolution in China, and the AIDS epidemic. All these horrors reached a climax on a gorgeous September day in New York with the unbelievable events we saw on the television in front of our eyes.

    We were acutely aware of the people in the building. While there were close to three thousand deaths, it is worth remembering that thirty to forty thousand people worked in the two buildings. It was almost miraculous that so many people actually got out alive. Perhaps the prayers of those who were looking at the collapse of the towers on the television or heard of it on the radio contributed to their escape.

    In any case, what I saw, and it is only my vision of it, was an image of the crucifixion of Christ, extended to the whole of humanity. The two towers, for me, were like the two arms of Christ on the cross, reaching up to heaven for mercy and to all appearances receiving no answer. The scene in lower Manhattan was the crucifixion of humanity, so to speak, extended in this enormous, visible, and public way--surely one of the most extraordinary signs of all time. As a consequence, its universal character, as seen by everybody in the world, must be a message to humanity of the most profound kind, especially if we can begin to fathom it by prayer and not be carried away by grief, anger, and retaliatory emotions.

More information can be obtained by reading the book The Transformation of Suffering by Fr. Thomas Keating.  It is offered in our Book Store.