ARLINGTON, Va., September 12, 2011 – In her sermon from New York City’s Manhattan Center Sunday morning, Reverend In Jin Moon shared an important insight about the killing of innocent people on September 11, 2001, and about the nature of love.
Mrs. Moon first explained that on the morning of 911, she was in an office building in Manhattan. She and the others in the office first became aware that something was wrong when someone noticed a huge pall of smoke rising from the area of the World Trade Center.
Before long, they all watched in dismay and horror as the second hijacked airplane exploded into one of the Trade Center towers. They saw a number of people who jumped to their deaths to escape the heat and flames.
New York City, 9/11/2001. (Photo: Associated Press)
She told how, as she saw the Trade Center buildings beginning to crumble, she realized that no one trapped inside could survive, and how when she saw the fire engines racing to the scene, she knew that the brave firemen would almost certainly lose their lives.
It was not long before Mrs. Moon’s children began calling her from Boston, where the family lives, wanting to know that she was alive and safe. Of course, she did her best to reassure them. Nevertheless, since there seemed to be a real possibility that more planes could be coming to crash into other buildings, she realized that this might actually be her last day on earth.
It was while trying to reassure her children that she felt anew how gladly she would give anything, sacrifice anything, even her own life, in order to protect or aid her children. Parental love should be like that.
The terrorists who attacked the Trade Center buildings certainly did not lack in courage, nor did they lack the willingness to sacrifice themselves, believing as they apparently did, that their horrific actions pleased God. The difference between their self-sacrifice and the sacrifice of many others on that day was that the terrorists did what they did in order to kill people, while other men and women, such as the first responders, sacrificed themselves in the effort to save people.
What God hopes to see in each of His children is that we learn to honor and cherish the lives and well-being of others around us. The nature of true love is not to be found in merely pursuing our own interests and certainly not found in taking advantage of, or killing people. Rather, it involves finding ways to protect, assist and serve other members of our human family.
This beautiful approach to life is already practiced by many people in countries all over the world and in countless different ways. With effort, it can increasingly become the dominant way of life on this earth, our common home.
Read more of Clark Eberly’s Stories of Faith in the Communities at the Washington Times.
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