Sometimes a new phrase suddenly appears in our lexicon, vividly bringing to mind a person or an event, and it stays with us. None more so than the simple juxtaposition of two consecutive odd numbers, 9 and 11.  

That brilliant early morning in New York City , September 11^th, 2001 , has become known simply by that cryptic phrase, 9/11.  Something changed then with the horrendous act that destroyed the Twin Towers , taking the lives of those working in the many offices on a multitude of floors, and all aboard the two passenger aircraft deliberately aimed at the tall columns that had dominated the New York skyline since the early 70s. One of those brought from the wreckage was Fr. Mychal Judge, chaplain to the NYC Firefighters.  

From that day there has been a seismic shift in our attitudes, our hopes and our fears. A time of innocence was swept away in the fireball and the huge dust cloud that engulfed Lower Manhattan one Tuesday morning in September. The consequences in the years since that fateful day in the Autumn of 2001, are all too sharply edged in our collective memory. As I am writing this, on Saturday evening, September 7^th,  the crowds are gathering in St Peter’s square at the urging of Pope Francis to pray for a peaceful outcome to the crisis in Syria . His presence, a simple figure dressed in white, reminds us of the Lord who stood in silence before His accusers.  

Donovan’s lyrics from a song of the 70s had the refrain “and the war drags on”. Then it was Vietnam . Now it is the hugely complex issue of uprising and distress that is sweeping across the Middle East . Little seems to have changed in our inability to live together.  

On the site of the Twin Towers a memorial marks their footprints, two large, deep, square pools of water. It is there that on each Anniversary date, people gather to remember, to pray, to cry or just to stand silently in the awesome presence of a truly terrible event.  

It was there that last year Paul Simon sang his famous song, ‘Sound of Silence’. Together with Art Garfunkel he had sung it in many places, concerts and open air gatherings, one of those being in Central Park , a few blocks north of the Twin Towers . Now older and greyer, he stood alone, with his guitar, wearing a blue baseball cap and sang the song again in a voice softened by years. If ever a song was written that later so typified the anguish of a city, this was it.  

On this 12^th anniversary date of 9/11 we trust that those who died rest in the peace of the Lord and that those who remain behind have a faith to strengthen them. And we pray for a peaceful world where we might live together without recourse to violence. Pacem in Terris.  

Sound of silence

Paul Simon singing at the memorial in 2012 can be viewed here

Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence

"Fools", said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed
In the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets

are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls"
And whispered in the sounds of silence.

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