My dear friend, spiritual leader, and Episcopal Priest, Stuart Hubbard Hoke, posted on Facebook yesterday this iconic picture. This is Trinity Church Wall Street, New York City, taken on September 11, 2001, immediately after the collapse of the Twin Towers. Trinity Church stood in the shadows of the Twin Towers. The church long served as a place where Tower workers could seek peace and communion with God in the busyness, stress, and hectic pace of Wall Street.
But on 9/11, as the clouds of death, destruction, and despair rose behind this historic place of worship, Trinity Church became something else. It was transformed into Holy Triage. St. Paul’s Chapel in Trinity Church was a place where many of the wounded were carried. A sacred place where Stuart and others cared for the wounded. As Larry Beck reports, a solemn place in which Brother Douglas Brown, Order of the Holy Cross (now deceased), tended to the wounded and gave Last Rights to the dying.
The vacuum of loss that day and over the last 20 years has been filled with healing and hope from God, with services and memorials to make sure we never forget what we had, what innocence we lost, what peace the departed received in the arms of God and what immeasurable sacrifice was given by First Responders, including the clergy at Trinity Church and leaders of all religious denominations.
God has spoken in Scripture about the purpose and worth of Godly servants.
Matthew 25:23
His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
Romans 12:21
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Let us pray together.
Dear God, please give continued comfort and healing to all who have suffered and continue to suffer from the evil launched against America on September 11, 2001.
God, we give thanks to You for the lives of the departed and the services of Your servants on and after 9/11 twenty years ago, including those at Trinity Church Wall Street.
God, may we never forget how America with Your help rose up from the ashes which descended from the Twin Towers that fateful day, that Your goodness always triumphs over evil, and human death is transformed into eternal life. Amen
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Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 145-lawyer full-service firm in Houston, Dallas, and Waco, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur, and Inspirational Speaker. For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to www.BendingAngel.com website.