THE FRUITS OF VULNERABILITY

September 8th 2002 Homily
Fr. George Smiga

Ezekiel 33:7-9

The message that God gives to Ezekiel in today's first reading could not be more blunt. God appoints Ezekiel to listen for the word of God and then speak it to Israel. God says that if Ezekiel speaks the word, he will live, and if he does not speak the word, he will die. The simple crudeness of this message emphasizes the importance of hearing the word of God and proclaiming it to others. We could not live or grow as a Christian community if we lost the ability to hear what God is saying to us in the events of our time and discern what response God is calling us to make. The more significant those events are, the more it is important for us to ask, what God is saying to us within them.

This truth has special relevance this week as our nation recalls the tragic events that happened a year ago on September 11th. Over the next few days there will be memorials, concerts, analyses and television specials that mark this anniversary. But what you and I are called to do is the same thing that Ezekiel was called to do, and that is to ask ourselves, "What is God saying to us in these tragic events that happened now almost a year ago?" To discover that, I think there are two questions we must address:, "How has our life changed since September 11th?" and "What is God telling us in that change?"

The first question can be answered rather simply. How has our life changed over the last year? We all now recognize how vulnerable we are. We now recognize that there are forces in the world intent upon harming us on our own soil. We think twice before boarding a plane; we feel less safe in large public gatherings; we worry more about the people we love. Vulnerability is the common denominator that ties us together in light of September 11th. We recognize that we are not as safe as we'd like to be and that we must live our life with more exposure, more risk.

Now, different people take different approaches to this vulnerability. Politicians want to pass laws that they say will make us safer. Military experts devise strategies that are meant to neutralize those who would attack us. Entrepreneurs create products that play upon our insecurities. But what you and I as believers in Christ are called to ask is this: "What is God telling us in this vulnerability that we now experience together?"

That, of course, is the second question. What is God telling us and calling us to do in the vulnerability which now characterizes our society? I would suggest that God is calling us to sympathy and to sacrifice. When we feel vulnerable, a common reaction is to pull back in fear. When we feel less safe, we're inclined to close ourselves down, to shrink the experiences we're willing to risk, to live less and less. The word of God calls us in a different direction: Rather than calling us to fear, it calls us to sympathy.

We more clearly now all know the fragility of life. We saw lives of thousands end in a few moments on our television screens. That vulnerability can lead us to a deeper compassion for all who suffer. That vulnerability can allow pain of others to touch us. Whenever we allow our vulnerability to connect us to others and identify us with those who suffer, we are allowing the word of God to speak to us in the aftermath of September 11th.

God's word calls us to sympathy, but it also calls us to sacrifice. In light of September 11th we know now the preciousness of life in a new way, and we are more aware that if life is going to continue, it needs committed people who are dedicated to preserve it and promote it. "All that it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing." [Edmund Burke]

It is true that our vulnerability can paralyze us and deflate us. It can also lead us to sacrifice - to the willingness to give ourselves to others. If our world is less safe, we need now, more than ever, parents willing to sacrifice for their children, friends willing to sacrifice for each other, citizens willing to give of themselves for their neighbor. Vulnerability can lead to paralysis. It can also lead to commitment. Whenever we allow our vulnerability to lead us to sacrifice for the people we love and the principles we believe in, we are responding to the word of God speaking to us in the aftermath of September 11th.

As we join with other Americans this week in remembering what happened a year ago, we as Christians must remind ourselves what God is telling us through this common tragedy. You and I are indeed more vulnerable than we were before; but if we can allow that vulnerability to lead us to sympathy and sacrifice, we will take something that is evil and allow God to bring goodness out of it.

Yes, the World Trade Towers have fallen, and yes, we are not as safe as we wish we were. But if we hear God's word in these tragic events and proclaim it to one another, we will know that we are not alone. Moreover, we can claim for ourselves a place within that blunt promised made to Ezekiel, believing that God will not lead us to death but to life.