By Fr. Glenn Jones:

As we come to its anniversary, it’s hard to believe it’s been 21 years since 9/11. A whole new generation has been reared since that time, knowing that unforgettable day only as an event in history, while the images of those two towers burning, then collapsing, are etched deeply into the memories of we who are older. The smoking gash in the Pentagon, and smoldering debris in a Pennsylvania field. Of twisted wreckage, dust-covered survivors emerging ghostly from the clouds of toxic dust, and of the horror of a nation and a world.

Also, a few days ago, Queen Elizabeth traveled into eternity, again to tears of many of her subjects and from others around the world. She had beheld the Great Depression, seen—and served in—World War II, and had met almost every American president since Truman (all but LBJ). One might playfully imagine her mimicking Forrest Gump: “I have to meet another American president. Aaagain.”

Elizabeth had to have had an unmatched, intimate and encyclopedic knowledge of the international politics occurring over her seventy-year reign and before—a veritable storehouse of history. And while many scoff at her having lived in luxury her entire life, the tradeoff was having every public, and many private, aspects of her and her family’s lives under the never-sleeping media microscope—gleeful critics jeering at every perceived misstep. Even her memory is now being attacked by “sideline royalty” who never had to govern anyone but themselves. One might remind them of a Teddy Roosevelt speech:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Now, at first glance 9/11 and Elizabeth’s death may seem to have little in common. But a thread running between both is the loss of a perception of security.

After 9/11, people constantly scanned the skies, fearful of another attack. For virtually everyone in the United Kingdom, Elizabeth has always been present—either as princess or as queen … a national mainstay of stability in times of strife, war and chaos, with unflappably regal demeanor calming the fears and concerns of a kingdom.

Such events as 9/11 and a national leader’s death help us to realize how fragile a thing is our sense of security. After all, did 9/11 materially affect many people outside of New York and Washington? Probably not much. Did Queen Elizabeth have much day-to-day influence in the lives of most in her kingdom? Probably not; their monarch has primarily moral and not operative power over the national government. But such events show how people and/or events can affect our lives so dramatically. Such events inject uncertainty into our lives, and remind us of our own fragile security; “If him, maybe me!”.

In fact, seeking a sense of security is why many people enter into religion. However, seeking security within religion does not speak of the truth or error of the religion itself; after all, many find solace and security in science or mathematics as well—in the (relatively) concrete and unchanging. The Muslim looks to the accounts of the life and teaching of Muhammad, the Buddhist to the life and teaching of Buddha, and, of course, the Christian to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus; no matter what else happens in the world, that information on which a religion is based is often firm and unchanging.

Yet security comes not only with adhering to the unchanging, but also in the knowledge that that unchanging is true.

Now, Christians find solace and confidence in the testimony of many witnesses of Jesus’ life and works, for example, especially in realizing that this worldwide faith began with a relatively handful of unlearned, common workmen (apostles) striving to spread—and being martyred for—their testimonies. Materially they gained nothing but hardship and persecution, often for years, until finally tortured and executed. Such witness cannot but bespeak of the assurance, and truth, of what they had witnessed for years walking with Jesus, and then after His death and resurrection. St. Paul even testified that Jesus “… appeared to Cephas [Peter], then to the twelve. Then he appeared [after His resurrection] to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive …” (1 Corinthians 15:5-6). In other words, Paul is implying: “Go speak to some of them if you don’t believe ME.”

So, O seeker, does it not behoove you to at least investigate the Christian faith for truth, and therefore for the attendant security which that faith provides? And you, O Christian, even in times of uncertainty, tragedy and extreme hardship, remember that your faith founded on unchanging truth, knowing that though life’s battle rages, for the faithful the war is already won … by He who IS the Way, the Truth and the Life.

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I hear, and my body trembles,
my lips quiver at the sound;
rottenness enters into my bones,
my steps totter beneath me…
[But] Though the fig tree blossom not,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength …

(Habakkuk 3:16-19)

Editor’s note: Rev. Glenn Jones is the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and former pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Los Alamos.