It was real.
It was personal.
It was family.
My family lives one hour away from Manhattan, many of the men in my family were firefighters, and I was a New York-based flight attendant with United Airlines on that fateful day fifteen years ago. I lost flying partners from my airline; we lost people from our little town who were in New York that day; the firefighters lost many of their number that day. I may not have lost anyone from my immediate family, but it was close enough to hurt. Here's one of the firefighters in my family:
And here's a flying partner of mine...
May the victims of the 9/11 attacks, fifteen years ago, rest in peace...
But there is another side to suffering...I have a book from 1924, written between World War I and World War II, called, Be of Good Heart: A Plea for Christian Optimism, by Fr. Joseph McSorley. In it, he writes:
"Nothing could be clearer than Christ's intention to promise His Disciples no freedom from suffering, no protection against bodily pain. He gives them no assurance of temporal reward. Calmly, as if outlining His own plan, He promises them -- persecution. This, then, is something which fits perfectly into His design. And when it comes, there will be no excuse for panic or apprehension...It will be necessary only to recall His word, and to be faithful to the ever-present grace of the Spirit. On this one condition all will come to a happy ending; and the heavier burden of suffering will be but the measure of the greater final joy....To us also the Paraclete was promised, and in our lives, too, the prediction made by Jesus has been verified. The advent of the Spirit has been followed by times of trial and often by great suffering. Is it not consoling to be assured that such affliction is not a sign of God's displeasure, nor an indication that our Savior has abandoned us, but rather a necessary condition of progress toward the state of holiness which is our destiny?"
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