911, Infamy and the Holy Cross

In 1941, after the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, Franklin Roosevelt, then president of the United States referred to the date, December 7, as “a date that would live infamy.” It was a date that defined a generation.

For me and my generation, November 22, 1963 was another such date. It was the day President Kennedy was shot down in Dallas. I remember exactly where I was when we heard the news in my third grade class at Lockwood Elementary. How the teacher came into the room and asked us, “Boys and girls, put your heads down on your desk and pray. The President has been shot.”

For the next generation, the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger, 73 seconds after its launch, exploded into a cloud of smoke, making January 28, 1986 another marker.

Twenty-five years ago, an attack on the United States of America at the World Trade Center in New York, gave us the new incarnation of a date that lives in infamy, but this time the date had been reduced to the numerical value, 9/11. So much of what we consider to be normal today, was shaped by that attack. TSA lines at airports, the Office of Homeland Security, are part and parcel of our life today. while our lexicon grew with words such as Islamophobia, Taliban, Al Qaida, and radicalism.

A couple of months following the attacks, I visited New York and the attack site where over 3,000 people were annihilated in the destruction of the twin towers. I was surprised to see smoldering hot-spots in the rubble and debris a full two months after the destruction, yet another reminder that these types of manifestations of hate do live in infamy and in reality. So great was the destruction on human lives, on collective psyche of the nation, that it is hard to believe that these 25 years since, have brought about a generation that has no concept of 9/11 apart from the quick-learned lessons from the YouTube videos, and social media reels that attract them because of the spectacular explosions on the side of two skyscrapers.

This Sunday is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on the Armenian Church calendar. The Holy Cross is a symbol of death and destruction. It points to the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ which was the defining moment, not only for one generation, but for all of humankind. In fact, most of our world today divides time – our common calendar – into BC and AD (BCE and CE), before Christ and our common era: the Year of the Lord. The Crucifixion lives in infamy, but in the light of the Resurrection, it is seen as a symbol of victory and therefore lives famously in glory.

Our Lord Jesus tells us, “In the world you shall have troubles: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

We remember the lost lives of 9/11. We remember with reverence all lives that are lost as a result of hatred, intolerance and misunderstanding. Today, exalt and venerate the Holy Cross of Christ because it stands as a marker of hope for humanity and hope for understanding among people.