September 11, 2026 has come and gone.
News media – television, radio (already a thing of the far distant past for almost two generations of Americans), the traditional newspapers, published by real journalists whose only interest is getting at truth and fact - have cycled and recycled so many times that the twenty-fifth commemoration of 9-11 is now “old news,” forgotten by most but the families of those who died on that clear-blue-skies morning and the First Responders who gave their lives – some almost instantaneously, some slowly, painfully and over years.
Forty-five percent of Americans had not yet been born on that September morning.
As the September 11s move inexorably to the horizon of “past,” Tuesday, November 3 approaches at seemingly breakneck speed.
Looking forward, we choose to look back – to fewer than twenty-four hours before that morning now more than twenty-five years ago.
In the early hours of September 10, 2001, Capuchin Franciscan Father Mychal Judge celebrated a Mass marking the rededication of the NYFD Engine 73/Ladder 42 firehouse in the Bronx. In his homily (sermon), Father Judge told men who would – within hours – become heroes, giving their lives that others might live:
“That’s the way it is. Good days, 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 you 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, not 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…”
“You do what God has called you to do. You show up. You put one foot in front of another… You have no idea what God is calling you to. But He needs you. He needs me. He needs all of us….”
It is to easy to say that is the Christian vocation.
No!
That is the vocation of every man, woman and maturing young adult of every faith: Jews and Muslims, Buddhists and Sikhs, Shinto and Christians. It is the vocation of every man, woman and maturing young adult without faith.
More critically, as Americans complete their mail-in ballots or prepare for November 3, it must become the criterion by which each and every voter should measure every candidate – “Is that candidate doing what God is calling them to do or are they but serving and enriching themselves and their family and friends.”
Minutes after American Flight 11 struck the North Tower at 8:46 a.m., the men of Engine1/Ladder 24, stationed directly across West 31 Street from St. Francis of Assisi Church and Friary, sped into action and NYFD Chaplain Mychal Judge rushed downtown with the firefighters – with his firefighters.
At the scene, New York’s Mayor Rudy Guilliani implored “Mychal, please pray for us.”
“I always do,” the priest responded, running into the building with the firefighters. Despite being offered the opportunity to join city officials and other priests in a safer location, Father Judge responded, “My work here isn’t finished.”
As smoke filled the Tower’s lobby, he offered consolation and administered the sacraments.
At 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175, flying at an estimated 590 mph, burst through floors 77 to 85 of the South Tower. Structural damage and the intensity of jet-fuel fires collapsed the building fifty-six minutes later. Debris tore into the North Tower and a piece of wreckage struck the ministering priest on the head.
Father Mychal Judge became September 11’s Victim 0001, the number printed at the top of his death certificate.
Firefighters Christian Waugh and Zachary Vause, NYPD Lt. William Cosgrove, FDNY EMT Kevin Allen, and civilian John Maguire carried his body to the safety of St. Peter’s Church on Barclay Street, placed it before the altar, covered it with a sheet, and placed his priest’s stole and fire badge atop it. After a moment of prayer, they returned to the living hell.
At the Mass of the Resurrection celebrating the life and priesthood of Mychal Judge, Father Michael Duffy, OFM, his fellow Franciscan Friar and close friend, summarized his death: “He was praying, because in the ritual for anointing (of the sick and dying) we’re always saying, ‘Jesus come, Jesus forgive, Jesus save.’ He was talking to God, and he was helping someone.”
In a Memorial Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral on the eve of 2026 nationwide commemorations, newly installed Archbishop of New York Ronald Hicks told a congregation of the families of those who died in the Towers’ collapse or as a result of their service in the days and weeks that followed:
“Healing takes time but hope is eternal… Healing takes times and healing does not happen in a day…
“There are memories permanently etched into our minds, hearts and souls. Healing takes time. But hope is eternal. And through these twenty-five years, we have never lost hope. We never lost hope in ourselves. And we never lost hope in God.
“And I think it is important to say what hope is and what hope is not.
“Hope is not optimism. Optimism says, ‘Tomorrow will be a better day.’
“…But hope is different. Hope focuses on today! Today, in the good times and the bad. Today, in the ups and downs. Today, in moments of celebration and moments of grief.
“Hope is knowing that God is walking with us. We are never alone. We are never abandoned. God is with us, even when we cannot see the entire path ahead.
Archbishop Ronald Hicks preaches Memorial Mass, September 10, 2026
“One of the signs of that hope has been our commitment to healing together. Since becoming Archbishop of New York, I have been deeply impressed by something I see here again and again. Whenever there is a major gathering at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, it is not only Catholics who are present. There are rabbis. There are imams. There are Protestant ministers. People from all different faith traditions.
“Standing together. Praying together. Listening together. Seeking the common good – together. One of the lessons of the last twenty-five years is that we need each other. We need ongoing dialogue.
“We need understanding. We need to see one another first as brothers and sisters created in the image and likeness of God. And that work, my friends, is never finished. It requires attention, humility and effort. But it is part of the healing process…
“At the same time, faith does not allow us to stop at remembrance. Because one of the lessons we have learned over the last twenty-five years is that healing is not passive.
“Healing does not just happen. Peace does not just happen.
“Justice does not just happen. Unity does not just happen.
“We have to work for it. Day after day. Conversation after conversation. Relationship after relationship. Agreement after agreement.
“And we have to strive for it – together.
“Twenty-five years later, we still remember. We still pray. We still honor the dead.
“We still thank God for the heroic witness of our first responders. We are still grateful for the multi-year commitment of the human service community.
“We still work for justice and peace. We still try to see one another as brothers and sisters, and we do so with hope, not because the road has been easy, but because God has been with us every step of the way.
“Healing takes time. Hope is eternal. And God who has carried us through the past twenty-five years continues to walk with us today, tomorrow, and always.”
Former President Joe Biden leans over a pew to talk with a boy after the 9/11 Memorial Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Sept. 10, 2026. Biden stayed nearly an hour after Mass to greet the congregation.
As September 11 fades, again, from the day-to-day awareness of too many and November 3 rushes toward us with politicians’ promises (and lies), the setting of the Archbishop Hicks’ homily is especially important. The front pew of the Cathedral was “reserved” for special guests including the Roman Catholic former Vice President Joe Biden and Governor Kathy Hochul of New York and the Muslim Mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani. When the Archbishop said “Whenever there is a major gathering at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, it is not only Catholics who are present. There are rabbis. There are imams. There are Protestant ministers. People from all different faith traditions…” he meant it!
In some ways, the Archbishop echoed the closing words of Abraham Lincoln’s March 4, 1865 Second Inaugural Address:
"With malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
Archbishop Ronald Hicks of New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and Greek Orthodox Archbishop Elpidophoros of America pray at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2026.
In the remainder of the fifty-three days between the bellringings of nationwide memorials on September 11 and the final bells of Election Day 2026, people of all faiths and no faith – like those gathered on September 10 in St. Patrick’s Cathedral – might consider the words of Pope Francis and, hopefully, mark their ballots accordingly:
“It is obvious that today's world is in need of mercy and compassion, or rather of the capacity for empathy. We are accustomed to bad news, cruel news and the worst atrocities that offend the name and the life of God. The world needs to discover that God is the Father, that there is mercy, that cruelty is not the way, that condemnation is not the way…” (Interview with Italian magazine Credere, December 2, 2015.)
No! We’re not voting for a national pastor – although there are certainly some darn good ones out that and they’d be getting our votes if we lived in their districts.
No. Not pastors! Let’s just vote for intelligent men and women – truly intelligent, not politically savvy and self-aggrandizing con artists out to make even more bucks, who cite their Ivy League diplomas to make themselves seem intelligent, all the while planning how they’ll make their next millions (or billions).
Let’s vote for men and women who are good – genuinely good; who have a history of being good and honest, actually caring for and serving their neighbors.
Let’s vote for men and women who understand “that cruelty is not the way, that condemnation is not the way…”
Let’s vote for men and women “of mercy and compassion… (and) the capacity for empathy”
The Marinelli Pontifical Bell Foundry in Agone, Italy, made this bronze bell for the New York City Fire Museum to honor 9/11 firefighters and responders. The bell was unveiled and blessed Sept. 11.
Because
“Healing does not just happen. Peace does not just happen.
“Justice does not just happen. Unity does not just happen.
“We have to work for it. Day after day. Conversation after conversation. Relationship after relationship. Agreement after agreement.”
Let’s “do what God has called” us “to do… show up.. put one foot in front of another” because
“You have no idea what God is calling you to.
But He needs you…
He needs all of us…”