Week
of
September 19, 2001
Inside the Register
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Day of Prayer draws over 1,500 to Cathedral Mass
Faith discovered in tragedy, suffering, Bishop Gomez says
By Roxanne King
At
noon Sept. 14, church bells rang across the nation, calling people to
prayer for the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the East Coast.
Throughout the U.S., response to the Day of Prayer and Remembrance declared
by President George W. Bush was overwhelming.
In Denver, more than 1,500 - including some 60 clergy — flocked to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, nearly double the 800 the church can seat. People filled the aisles and crowded around the sanctuary. Outside, hundreds stood huddled against the sides of the church. With no chance of gaining entrance, they stayed anyway and prayed outside.
It may have been the largest gathering ever at the cathedral, an archdiocesan spokesman said.
"We don't have this many people every day - I wish we did," said auxiliary Bishop Jose Gomez, prompting laughter from the somber sea of people, many clad in red, white and blue.
The bishop began his homily with a friend's question — the one on everyone's mind: "How can a God of love allow this kind of evil and suffering?"
The answer is freedom, the bishop said.
"I had to answer him that God made us free, and because we're free, we can freely choose to do terrible things," the bishop said. The struggle between good and evil, he added, isn't "outside" us, it's "in the center of the human heart."
Love, therefore, is meaningful because it's not simply "instinct," the bishop said, rather, it's "a gift" that we have the freedom to give or withhold.
Answering the question of how one keeps faith when tragedy occurs and God seems to be silent, Bishop Gomez said, "That's the wrong question.
"Faith untested is faith that's not real," he said. "Tragedy and suffering are where we find our faith."
Repeating the message he gave during a Mass the evening of the attacks, the bishop said, "What the pain of this entire week teaches us is that only God is our security and strength."
The suffering our nation bears "is a call to conversion," he said.
Asking how God can allow tragedy to occur also isn't the right question, the bishop said.
"The real question is, `What are we going to do about it?'" he said. "In the days and weeks ahead, are we going to choose to hate as Tuesdays' murderers hated? Or will we try to live and love as Jesus did - no matter what the cost?"
Lt. Gov. Joe Rogers and his wife Juanita, who worship at a Baptist church in Montbello, were among those who attended the Mass.
"We are a great people," the lieutenant governor said addressing the congregation at the end of Mass. "We have been a symbol of hope throughout the world. Across the globe, yes, in the Middle East, people have joined with us in prayer, hope and faith."
Reciting the Serenity Prayer, he said, "We say, God please grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can and grant us the wisdom to know the difference."
Showing appreciation for his participation, the congregation responded to the lieutenant governor's remarks with loud applause.
The Rogers weren't the only non-Catholics at the cathedral.
Karen Cryderman, 30, a Presbyterian, took her mother to the Mass with a group of friends.
"I called my church-going friend and said, "`Where are you going?'" Cryderman said. "Then I called my Mom."
Like so many others, Cryderman and her mother, Marilyn, 66, said they wanted to stand in solidarity with the nation and pray — where they prayed wasn't an issue.
"Church feels like a safe haven, even if you're not a religious person," said Cryderman's friend, Amy Vinton, 31, a Catholic and native New Yorker. "You feel like a community. You don't feel so alone."
Allison Smyth, 15, a sophomore at Mullen High, said she attended the liturgy with eight others from her school, who then met up with dozens of students from other Catholic schools, which had all closed in honor of the day of prayer.
"It was so cool to see so many priests and people here," Smyth said. "Just to be surrounded by so much love is an awesome experience."
Nick Fagnant, 18, a senior at Regis Jesuit High, was equally enthusiastic.
"I wouldn't want to be anywhere else," he said.
The teens' enthusiasm gave witness to how uplifting the experience of collective prayer was.
"I feel a lot of togetherness, a lot of spiritual feeling," said Charles Walla, 70.
Walla's daughter, Amy, 28, said the Mass gave her "a measure of peace - that's the first time I've felt that all week."
Unable to give blood and being so far away from where the nightmarish events occurred had left her feeling somewhat helpless, Walla said. Prayer was the one thing she could do for the victims, their families, and the rescuers, she said.
For Vinton, the tragedy struck closer to home. Having once worked at the World Trade Center, Vinton said she had friends in the building at the time of the plane crashes. She also has a brother who is a New York police officer. Thankfully, she said, none of her loved ones were hurt.
In the days since the tragedy, Vinton said, she has noticed a change in people.
"I feel priorities are shifting," she said. "I hope it lasts. People are kinder, more respectful. ... It makes you value life."
Mary Lou Byrne, 62, a parishioner at Risen Christ Catholic Church, was among those who prayed outside the cathedral.
"Someone started the rosary since (we) couldn't in," she said. Motioning to the grass, she said, "It was packed here. There were so many people you couldn't walk through. It was great."