Earlier today, I attended the funeral service for John Reo, the son of Armand Reo, the Troy Superintendent of Schools, who along with his brother-in-law John Swaine, worked for the brokerage firm of Cantor Fitzgerald at the World Trade Center and is one of those who perished in that horrendous event of Sept. 11.
John's death, along with the death of my friend Father Mychal Judge, the chaplain for the New York City fire department, who was crushed by falling debris while ministering to a stricken firefighter, have brought home very personally and powerfully the bitter fruits of the cowardly attack on America.
I understand that many of you here at the University have been directly affected as well.
So, today, we pray for those killed, injured and missing, and for their grieving family members and friends. We pray for the members of the Armed Forces who may now be placed in harm's way.
We pray for the workers who have become unemployed or displaced as a result of this tragedy. We pray for Gov. Pataki, Mayor Giuliani, and all those involved in the rescue and recovery efforts.
We pray for President George Bush and those who advise him as they seek to restore our nation's confidence and respond appropriately to this unprecedented threat to freedom, both within our own nation and throughout the world.
Liberty and war
In his address to Congress, the President told us that "freedom and fear are at war." But he vowed that "ours will not be an age of terror but an age of liberty."
It must, however, be a liberty that seeks justice, not vengeance; a liberty that will not engage in ethnic, religious or national stereotyping because of the irrational behavior of some terrorists and their misguided supporters.
This point needs to be underscored because already there have been some 240 reported slurs, threats and attacks upon the members of the Muslim community in our United States. So, today, we pray for Arab Americans and American Muslims who are experiencing pain, hurt, confusion and the fear of becoming the scapegoats for people's anger and resentment.
Trust in God
The events of Sept. 11 remind us, I believe, of those ideals which are truly important:
* the ideal of trust in God, who is ever present to us even in the face of the inexplicable and the incomprehensible;
* the ideal of the sanctity of human life, which must always be reverenced, respected, cherished and protected;
* the ideal of the solidarity, which can and should exist among the members of the human family...a solidarity that recognizes that a wound in one is a hurt in each...that as long as one child falls asleep hungry at night my stomach hurts...that as long as an elderly person can't afford heat or fears tomorrow there is a chill in my bones...or that as long as one person is treated with a lack of dignity, I am ashamed. For if one person is oppressed, manipulated or disregarded, then it is not someone else who is debased but all of us who are since that is the nature of the interdependence we have upon one another as members of the human family;
* the ideal of importance of family with its precious and nourishing bonds;
* the ideal of love for our country and its institutions and values, as enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution; and
* the ideal of the perennial call found in all the great religions of the world to respond with care and compassion to our brothers and sisters in need.
Acts of love
Wasn't this latter ideal evidenced beautifully over the past ten days in the heroic efforts of the firefighters, police, emergency response teams and the rescue workers...in the incredible acts of kindness extended to strangers all across our land...in the thousands of people who donated blood, often waiting on line for hours to do so...and in the outpouring of love, support, generosity and prayers on the part of millions of Americans?
Yes, these actions remind us tangibly that our God of unconditional and ever-present love will never abandon us and will always be a source of hope, healing and consolation in our time of need.
In a day and age when we often find ourselves preoccupied by shallow and superficial concerns, I hope the tragedy that has befallen us will remind us of these ideals which are so central and important for our lives and lead us to rededicate ourselves to them.
Three values
Let me cite three values which I would suggest we need to reflect upon and integrate into our lives in the wake of this tragedy.
1. We must manifest a deep and abiding trust in God's providence, in a God who never promised us instant success and who frequently writes our history with crooked lines.
The events of Sept. 11 have created a great upheaval. In the face of this problem, there can emerge the temptation to become impatient, to lose sight of the fact that the defeat of terrorism is not a romp or a few days of intensive work, but a long, hard, arduous process that will undoubtedly stretch into months and even years.
That is why we need patient endurance to carry us through the many winters that it takes to change attitudes and structures. That is why we must strive to avoid the pitfall of "instant antiquity," the pitfall of thinking that the problems, the crises and challenges we are currently experiencing are the most serious crises and problems ever encountered. This attitude arises because we have simply not experienced the pain of other challenges, of other crises or other periods of history.
Vision of life
If, therefore, we are to avoid discouragement and disillusionment in the face of this disaster, then we must have a vision of life that is rooted in trust in God's providence and in the cleansing discipline of historical perspective, a vision of life that recognizes that we live in a world and society where there are few areas that are all black and white, but where various shades of gray predominate.
If we are committed to coping in such a world and society, then we must be willing to accept the confusion, uncertainty and turmoil that abound therein, and be willing to tolerate imperfection while seeking to change it.
This is not to lose one's ideals nor to compromise one's values but to live like human beings in a world where the full force of God's plan for humankind as yet has not unfolded fully.
Examples
Let me cite two examples of people I have observed trusting in God's providence in the face of adversity:
* Recently, I watched the actor Michael J. Fox giving an interview to a TV reporter. He looked very thin, his movements were spasmodic, and I could see the lines deeply etched on his face, emanating from the difficulty of coping with the Parkinson's disease which plagues him.
Yet he said something that indicated to me that he is embracing adversity with trust and confidence. He said, "I'm happier now than I've ever been. My greatest worries used to be where to park my Porsche or from whence my next acting role would come. In retrospect, how shallow and superficial those concerns were. Now I'm a new person. This disease has given me a new outlook on life that goes far beyond myself. And in fighting to find a cure for this disease, I will touch the world in ways I can't even imagine presently."
You see, Michael J. Fox has chosen to walk into suffering and not to run from it. And that, my friends, is where God is. God is not the one who caused his disease, but the one who empowers the walk.
* A year ago the mother of Matthew Shepard, the young gay man who was beaten to death in a vicious hate crime in Wyoming visited this University. She is choosing to deal with her tremendous grief by visiting college campuses across the country and speaking about the healing power of love.
She pointed out that hatred is a learned behavior and that the only hope for the world is to choose to "unlearn" hatred. And we don't do this by ignoring it, but by facing it with a new voice and a new attitude. And that is what we need in the face of Sept. 11's tragedy: a new voice and a new attitude.
Humor
2. In the wake of the attack upon America, I believe that we must gain and maintain a sense of humor. One of the distinctive features of our nation since its inception has been the positive, upbeat, optimistic, can-do, never-say-die spirit of its people. We cannot allow the terrorist attack on America to crush this spirit. We cannot allow terrorism to transform us into a people who are dour and sour.
Thus, it is important that we be able to step back to gain the balance, the proportion, and the sense of perspective to cope with the incongruities of life and to realize that these incongruities need not defeat us. Rather, as the sacred texts of the world's religions proclaim, ultimate victory over forces that seem insurmountable is truly possible.
A sense of humor enables us to gain that perspective. Note well that the humor of which I speak has nothing to do with the laughing and telling jokes; the world is full of people who laugh and tell jokes but who have no sense of humor. Neither does the humor of which I speak have anything to do with poking fun at another's foibles or ridiculing another's stupidity.
Rather, genuine humor, like a true sense of humility, involves a ruthless honesty about oneself without any pretense or show. It deals with those surprises that upset the way we think things ought to be, and it lightens the heaviness associated with hurt. Humor doesn't deny hurt, but it becomes the vehicle through which anger, defiance and pain can be handled constructively.
I hope then, that we as Americans will cultivate a sense of humor which enables us to laugh at ourselves and with others so that we can avoid that anxiety, fear and uptightness which can defeat us. People of hope
3. I would suggest that we must be people of hope. In his address to the Congress and the American people, President Bush said that "the greatest achievement of our time and the great hope of every time now depends upon us."
There is no question that we are faced with a crisis. The dictionary describes a crisis as a turning point that can lead to good or to ill. Some view the crisis created by the events of Sept. 11 as a source for discouragement and disillusionment. They see only the confusion, hurt, pain, uncertainty and ambiguity which this crisis has generated, and conclude that the situation is hopeless or impossible.
Quite frankly, I see the present crisis as an opportunity for the good. I am convinced that there have been certain times in the life of the world when God's Spirit has been poured forth abundantly, creating a new vision and horizon which gives shape and direction to humankind and civilization for generations to come.
In the face of the present crisis, you and I are privileged to be involved at the heart of such a reawakening: of being forerunners of the world and society to come; of being molders and builders of new structures, attitudes, relationships, and understandings of people of different cultural and religious backgrounds that can renew the face of the earth. And it will take all of the love, zeal, talent, maturity and experience we possess if we are to respond to this crisis as God desires and as the challenge itself so urgently demands.
It is my hope and prayer, then, that we in the United States will accept, embrace and fulfill this challenge for the honor and glory of God and ultimately for the transformation of our world and society. May it be so!
(Editor's note: The preceding is a transcript of remarks made by Bishop Hubbard at an interfaith prayer service held Sept. 21 at the University at Albany.)