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St. Paul's Chapel Near the World Trade Center
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Jesus said to him, "Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times. Matthew 18:22
I visited St. Paul's Chapel in Manhattan in the middle of Dec. 2001. I had come to New York City to visit a friend who lived in New York City at the time and was working nearby the World Trade Center on 9-11-2001. His life, like the lives of the workers, volunteers and mourners at St. Paul's had truly been shaken by the events of that beautiful but tragic autumn day. Has your world changed during these past 10 years?
I stood in front of the many impromptu shrines that had been established on the chapel's fence.  There were many visitors gathered by that fence as well as inside of the chapel. It was the holiday season; so, I experienced this rather odd sense of mourning colliding with joy. My impression is that people were grieving even as they tried to cope with what had happened nearby three months before. I know that I was, perhaps still am.
I got on a train later that afternoon contemplating what I had taken in during my visit to the World Trade Center area and St. Paul's. I perceived within myself that I had not resolved my grief, my anger, and all of the other emotions that I was feeling because of 9-11. I'm sure that one emotion that I wasn't feeling at the time was one of forgiveness towards the terrorists who had caused so much damage to the people of this nation as well as the people of their own nations.
Forgiveness, is perhaps the most difficult aspect of the Christian life. How many times must I forgive a sister or brother? The early Church, as we read in Sunday's gospel, believed that its members should be extremely forgiving toward one another. They weren't as tolerant of non-Christians who caused them harm. I wonder if that is the sort of feeling I along with others experience when someone, regardless of faith, hurts us or someone we love. A huge problem with hanging on to such intolerance, hatred, anger, and other negative emotions is that nothing truly changes between the victim and her or his assailant, between us and those we are in conflict with at given points in time. Resentment or revenge is, according to St. Augustine, like taking poison and hoping that the other person you're angry with dies.
Moreover, Christ's transformational grace is unobtainable when we bind ourselves to our own hatred or woundedness. We need God's help and the support of the members of our Christian community to increase our faith in God's providence, Christ's mercy, and the Holy Spirit's wisdom during times of profound crisis such as that fateful day almost ten years ago. It is perhaps important on the approaching anniversary of 9-11-01l to respond by laying our anger and tribulations at the foot of The Cross and the truth of the Empty Tomb. The God we believe in through Jesus Christ's life, death and resurrection is a God who responds with forgiveness rather than wrath; hope instead of despair. Love rather than hatred is the focal point of such belief, especially when we don't know how otherwise to respond otherwise.
Blessings Along The Way, Jim+
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Thanks to everyone who has volunteered to help with our nursery services. 
