9/10

 Dear Friends

I have just begun reading a book by Garrett M. Graff --- “The Only Plane in the Sky---An Oral history of 9/11”. A 2019 New York Times Bestseller, it was critically acclaimed by many, including familiar television personalities Katie Couric and Anderson Cooper, and historians Michael Beschloss and fellow Episcopalian Jon Meacham who said “this is history at its most immediate and moving”.

The book is simply and powerfully a collection of many first person accounts and memories. But one is set apart because it was words spoken the day before 9/11, words from a meditation delivered on September 10^th, 2001, by FDNY chaplain Fr. Mychal Judge, who died the next day. (You have likely seen the picture above of his body being removed by fellow firemen at the World Trade Center).

At the 9/10 rededication of a Bronx firehouse, home to Engine 73 and Ladder 42, he said,

Good days. And bad days. Up days. Down days. Sad days. Happy days. But never a boring day on this job. You do what God has called you to do. You show up. You put one foot in front of another. You get on the rig and go out and do the job. Which is a mystery. And a surprise. You have no idea when you get on that rig. No matter how big the call. No matter how small. You have no idea what God is calling you to. But he needs you. He needs me. He needs all of us.

I have no idea what I did or said the day before 9/11. But Fr. Judge’s words remind me of the slogan, “Tomorrow Starts Today”. Tomorrow may be only a day away and that other song tells us “don’t stop thinking about tomorrow”. But today is the only day we are guaranteed. And even when we don’t think we are needed (anymore) we are. Today and tomorrow and every day, God needs us and will use us in ways we may not even know.

John