"I am the Good Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. Greater love than this no man hath than to lay down his life for his friends."
His lifeless body carried away from the fray by the same people he served and loved. Moments before his untimely death on September 11, 2001, Fr. Mychal Judge was ministering to the dying and the injured and administering Last Rites to human beings that died that morning amidst the rubble of evil.
What started out as a beautiful September morning in New York City turned abruptly into unspeakable darkness. Fr. Mychal, Brooklyn's own Franciscan priest and Chaplain to NYC firefighters upon hearing the news that the World Trade Center was in flames, rushed to the scene to lend both hands. He never returned to the firehouse along with 343 other firefighters around NYC.
In that terrible holocaust of the World Trade Center, 2,606 innocent people died from the hands of crazed Islamic fanatics. For some strange inexplicable reason, Fr. Mychal's body was the first body released from Ground Zero. His death certificate had the number one on the top.
In a brilliantly written and delivered eulogy Father Mychal's friend and fellow priest, Father Michael Duffy, Fr. Duffy writes: "And so this morning we come to bury Mike Judge's body but not his spirit. We come to bury his mind but not his dreams. We come to bury his voice but not his message. We come to bury his hands but not his good works. We come to bury his heart but not his love."
You see Mychal's message was one of love and life. Those that took his meaningful life along with the other almost 3,000 victims of terror don't share those values.
Highjacked Flight United 93 crashed headlong into that Shanksville field at 550MPH incinerating all innocents aboard. What was heard before the crash on the voice recorder? "Allaha Akbar." Then silence. Translation: Allah is Great.
As one radical Islamist stated recently, "We love death. The USA loves life. That is the big difference between us." Tony Blair is right on when he writes: "Radical Islam is the world's greatest threat today." Their singular way of expression is unleashing sociopathic mayhem around the world...constantly.
So, today we pray in thanksgiving for the life of Fr. Mychal and those who serve others in and out of the shadows of this world. We also pray for those left behind when their loved ones did not come home on that fateful day. They will never be forgotten.
Fr. Mychal, the shepherd, is gone like so many others before and after him, while the jackals multiply. But as the Gospel proclaims, "evil will not triumph."
May God continue to help us all.
Dan, great blog! I'm so glad our Good Shepherd taught and demonstrated for us to prefer others over ourselves and that the greatest love is manifested in the willingness to die in another human's stead. Quite contrary to "the world's greatest threat today"
ReplyDeleteHope you and your family are doing well my friend. Thank you for calling remembrance to this day.