Memorial of the Most Holy Name of Mary

 

12 September 2024

Today we commemorate The Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a celebration that occurs within the octave of the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The commemoration of Mary’s birth was on Sunday this year and thus suppressed.  Today’s memorial is a quiet commemoration with little fuss about it, no Gloria at the Mass, and a degree of flexibility with the readings. But today’s memorial  is now forever linked to the terrorist action that irreversibly changed life in the U.S.  

Mary’s yes, “May it be done unto me according to your word” a yes given at the Annunciation, changed the history of the universe.  That yes continues to echo down the universe and will echo through the universe until and beyond the end of time.  But today, September 12, 2024, we hear the echo of another sound from the past.  It was the sound of violence, destruction, and evil. It was a sound to which we shrieked NO! and then wept.

Twenty-three years ago today most of us were walking around in a catatonic state.  The full extent of the terrorists’ actions was still unravelling:  New York City, Washington, D.C. and Shanksville, PA all the sites of terrorist caused plane crashes.

Twenty-three years ago today was the first full day following the attacks.  The tally of deaths was still climbing.  The reality of the holes in the sky where the twin towers had stood was yet to fully sink in.

Twenty-three years ago today the communal shriek NO contrasted with the strange silence in airspace as in Boston, NY, D.C., and all metropolitan areas as planes were grounded. That silence was interrupted only by the sound of jet fighters patrolling the sky while the comforting roar of 747’s coming in for a landing was absent.  It was eerie. 

Millions of Americans screamed WHY?  Those screams and whys were greeted by the same eerie silence.  Those screams continue to echo twenty-three years later and the same silence follows as we await an answer. 

Good people and bad ones were destroyed in equal measure without attention to which was which.  We remain perplexed.  We continue to scream  WHY as a quarter of a century as approaches.  Only a complete fool would stand in a pulpit and give an answer to that why with blather, rambling, and assurances that people are really good.  Only unchecked hubris would permit anyone to survey the devastation and explain the why. Only the most arrogant would interrupt the silence following the blast with babble or rationalizations. 

Sometimes the only possible response to an anniversary such as this is to sit in and with the silence and listen to that silence.  If we listen closely enough we can hear Elizabeth’s salutation in today’s gospel, “blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” 

And then we continue to ask: WHY? and struggle with the grief and angry residue of the past 23 years.

 

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The icon on the wall and the cross on the altar summarize it all.  

 

 

 Fr. Jack, SJ, MD