Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

NINE-ELEVEN: TEN YEARS LATER

Practice makes perfect

Wrath and anger are hateful things,
yet the sinner hugs them tight.

The readings for this Sunday were chosen more than forty years ago, when the revised lectionary was prepared after the Second Vatican Council. It is ironic we should hear their invitation to forgiveness on this tenth “Patriots Day.”

How should we mark this day? What special ceremony will give this annual, national commemoration its own identity? A year ago one Christian minister announced he would publicly burn a Koran. He hoped he might set a trend. As we decorate Christmas trees in December, and paint eggs at Easter, we should burn a Koran on September 11. That minister was roundly rebuked by millions of people who believed his gesture was inflammatory, hateful and undignified.

How should we mark this day? First we should recall the ancient conflict between Islam and Christianity. It didn’t start ten years ago. The Islamic threat we face today -- if there is one -- was far graver a millennium ago when the armies of Islam were closing like pincers around Europe. The Roman empire had collapsed and the Muslim empire spread into the resulting power vacuum. They governed Spain to the west, Constantinople and much of Greece to the East, and most of Italy south of Rome. Their navies controlled commerce in Mediterranean Sea. Their civilization, culture and technology surpassed anything Europe had to offer. 


Eventually Europe reorganized and the Muslim empire declined. With superior technology and reckless adventurism, European nations shamelessly exploited the divided nations of Africa and Asia. The English used Egyptian labor and money to build the Suez Canal but reserved ownership and profits to themselves. The Nazis in North Africa intentionally drove a wedge between Muslims and Jews. That hostility persists today. 

The pendulum swung again with the founding of Israel in 1948 and the humiliation of the entire Arab world during the Six Days War in 1967. They could bear the exploitation of secularist Europe with its contempt for all religions no longer. The Muslim Brotherhood had already begun to organize young men of Egypt and would spawn many militant groups, including Al Qaeda. (Its founder Qutb had studied in the United States and been scandalized by the sexualized, materialistic culture he found here.)


But do these groups and their methods represent all Muslims? Many American Muslims insist they do not. They live peaceably among us and enjoy the opportunities and security of the United States. As to the Muslim nations of Africa and Asia, we should watch and pray they will rise to enjoy the stability, prosperity and peace they once enjoyed. They must develop a civil society with prosperity and security that reflects their own Islamic values and recognizes the dignity of every person. 

If the United States has a spiritual responsibility to them, a "manifest destiny," it is to offer a safe home where ancient religious feuds can be resolved. Our "a-theistic" Constitution, which endorses no religion and honors no deity, allows Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Daoism Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Native American religions, Yoruba and all other religions the opportunity to revere the Image of God, the Great Spirit, the Buddha within and the true believer. 

That  is why we cannot burn the Koran on Patriots Day. On this day Catholics should remember our long history, and Christians should demonstrate our singular contribution to the United States and the world; that is, forgiveness. Imitating the Emmanuel who prayed for his torturers, we can hold no grudge against Muslims. Rather, we offer the hospitality that God showed to us when he led us to this "new world."