I was watching the Today Show and sipping my morning coffee on September 11, 2001.  Like the rest of the West Coast viewers I was horrified at the sequence of events and images as they unfolded.  Since May of 2001 I had been fussing with the Army Chaplain personnel section because of a change in my reserve assignment, which made the possibility of mobilization one step more imminent than the status I thought I was in.  The promise was that the personnel section would change me back to the less vulnerable status at the beginning of the next fiscal year, which begins October 1.  As I watched the devastating events unfold, I said out loud, “There’s no way they will change me back now.”

No doubt, you have your own memory of where you where and what you were doing when you heard the news of the airplane bombs that devastated the twin towers, smashed into the Pentagon, and created a crater in a Pennsylvania field.

Sure enough, my status was not changed.  In fact, within sixty days I had a new set of orders in hand that mobilized me to Ft. Hood, Texas, for a year.  One event led to another in my personal life.  One event also led to another in the life of the nation.

As devastating as the events of 9-11 were, I found the desire for revenge and retaliation equally horrifying.  I saw on that day the possibility of a new way of behaving, one that might bring genuine transformation to the world.  I hoped we would dare to remain calm and purposeful to work toward building a world of peace.  The language of retaliation saddened me because I heard in it a clear message, “We’ll do it the way we always have.”  We hadn’t reached the level of peacemaking I had hoped for.

Well into the three wars in which we have engaged since 9-11—Afghanistan, Iraq, and the war on Terrorism, I still wish we—by “we” I mean the whole human family—would experience a transformation, not only in the way we respond to violence, but a transformation of consciousness.   We look back over the past five years and ask, are we safer today than we would have been had we pursued a path of dialogue and international diplomacy?  I’m not suggesting that we should have done nothing; rather that we would have resolved to work and worked hard in cooperation with the whole human family to end violence and its root causes, real or imagined. Would the death toll be higher, the same, or lower?  Would there be greater, lesser, or the same stability or instability in Iraq?  Would the feelings of trust, respect, and goodwill other nations have toward the U.S. be more, less, or the same?  Would the world be a safer or more dangerous place or would it be about the same? 

Of course, I can’t answer with certainty because we pursued the path nations have always taken – the way of military retaliation.  I can only speculate.  I imagine the world would at least be no worse off, and very likely it would be better off, had we pursued nonviolent approaches to solving the problem of terrorism and violence.  But we won’t know until someone tries it.  Unfortunately, there will be opportunities to try again.

In the meantime, we keep the vision of peace and nonviolence and the hope of transformation alive in our hearts, in our churches, in our communities, among any who will share the vision.  I’m inclined to believe that if enough people hold the vision of peace it will become the reality of our universe. 

Grace and Peace!

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred let me sow love,

Where there is injury, pardon,

Where there is doubt, faith,

Where there is despair, hope,

Where there is darkness, light,

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, let me not seek

So much to be consoled as to console,

To be understood as to understand,

To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

And in dying that we are born to eternal life.

–St. Francis