![\"Tribute](\"images\/stories\/\/tribute.jpg\")
<\/p>\nNo matter where you are in the surrounding boroughs, as long
\nas you have a good enough view of Manhattan, you
\nshould be able to see the memorial lights of the Twin Towers
\nthis weekend. Bright powerful lights, placed parallel to each other, aiming
\ntheir luminance skyward so that anyone passing around the City on the highways
\ncan look and see those lights and remember what happened on Tuesday, September
\n11, 2001.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I was immediately sent back. <\/p>\n
I was on my way to work and had just finished looking at the
\ntime (8:44 AM according to my clock), listening to NPR and suddenly one of the
\nreporters started saying something about a reported accident with one of the
\nTowers. Something about a plane crashing and then the radio station cut off. I
\nskimmed around to other stations—there was lots of static from a couple of the
\nchannels I tried. Finally I got on one that was reporting about the accident.<\/p>\n
When I got into work no one really knew about it. I told the
\nfew that were there and managed to set my radio up to pick up a signal and get
\nthe report. When the second plane hit the Tower I felt a lump in my throat and
\nran out into the hallway telling people: “A second plane! This isn’t an
\naccident!”<\/p>\n
I think a group of us ran down to the first floor to see
\nwhat was going on via television. Fear ran high as we saw what happened
\nin DC and heard about other planes.I remembered that my friend worked
\nat the Twin
\nTowers and another friend of mine worked at the Merrill Lynch building
\nright
\nnext door. They made it fine. My buddy who should’ve been at work
\ncouldn’t find
\nparking and wound up missing his train. My other buddy couldn’t sleep
\nfor the
\nnext few months remembering the horror of people leaping to their
\ndeaths.<\/p>\n
As it is, I can still remember this iodine-like smell that hovered over Brooklyn, Queens and even a bit of Nassau county. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And tonight (as yesterday and tomorrow), those lights blaze into the sky making ground
\nzero as brilliant as day. There are visitors around the Towers tonight, many
\nfrom all over the world, but there are several there that are doubled over
\nremembering a loved one, openly weeping, never forgetting. The lights are up
\nbut some of these people might go back there all the time by looking at a
\npicture of their lost loved one.<\/p>\n
I can’t help thinking about our
\nmemorial. The horror of death, painful on so many levels, was inflicted
\nupon the Son of Man in a most wicked way. He was pinned to the tree and scorned by men and called
\nout to the Father “My God! My God! Why have You forsaken Me?” This Jesus who
\ndied left us a way to remember Him as He broke the bread and passed the cup
\nsaying “Do this in remembrance of Me.”
\nPaul would remind us that as often as we drink that cup and take that
\nbread we proclaim His death until He returns.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"images\/stories\/\/breadwine.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Every Sunday we break that bread and drink from that cup and
\nthe horror of His death is proclaimed, a blazing memorial in the imagery of
\nthose simple elements. But we don’t do it as a funeral service but looking
\ntowards His imminent return, performing this action to keep His death and
\nresurrection vivid in our minds and hearts. This we proclaim: The Lord
\ndied, but now He lives and He will return.<\/p>\n
So many died on that day and I can’t even bear to think
\nabout the amount of people who closed their eyes to this world to only
\nopen it
\nin Hell. God help us to preach the Word and do it with the earnest
\nexpectation
\nthat He might return at any moment. Let us proclaim His death in the
\ntaking of the symbols and in our relationships with other people.\n<\/p>\n
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