PRAYERS FOR THE HEROES: MONSIGNOR GEORGE HIGGINS At 24th BIENNIAL CONVENTION OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR AND CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 2001

Thank you very much, Linda (AFL-CIO Executive Vice-President Linda Chavez-Thompson, who introduced Msgr Higgins to give the Convention invocation). At the last AFL-CIO convention in Los Angeles, I delivered the shortest invocation ever delivered by any clergyman of any faith tradition in the history of the entire labor movement.
(Laughter)
Today's invocation will be a little longer. Sorry. And it will not be the usual tub-thumping pro-labor invocation that I've given many, many times before. The times are too serious for that. Like many others who were severely traumatized by the events of September -- and who was not -- I keep returning to the Psalms of the Old Testament, the Hebrew and Jewish scriptures, looking for guidance and at least some measure of comfort and support.
This invocation at the first post-September 11 AFL-CIO convention will reflect prayerfully on two Psalms: Psalm 33 and Psalm 137, both of which, in my reading of them, have a bearing on the September 11 tragedy. It is all the more appropriate I think to reflect on these ancient Jewish Psalms and prayers in light of what is now happening so tragically in Jerusalem.
We read in Psalm 33 that the Creator thwarts the plans of nations. He frustrates the designs of people. The Creator's own design shall last forever, the plans of God for all ages.
These are words of reassurance to all of those who wish humankind well and are concerned about its future. We read the papers, listen to the radio, and watch television with news that threatens humanity's existence from day to day. All is violence in ambition and war, and deranged people plan to murder other human beings in great numbers.
Before the brutal evidence of worldwide violence, good people feel the frustration of their helplessness, the uselessness of their efforts, the defeat of good sense, and the flight of sanity from the international scene. The plans of nations spell misery and destruction, and nothing and nobody seems to be able to stop the insane race to self-annihilation.
More than worrying about the future, what alarms the minds of most thinking people today is the sorrow and surprise and sadness at the foolishness of humankind and the inability to make others see reason for their own good.
But the Psalmist reminds us again that the Creator frustrates the plans of the nations. That is our reassurance. That is our hope.
Psalm 137 speaking to the Israelites during their Babylonian exile and captivity also speaks to us at this tragic moment of our own history. The Psalmist speaking for the exiled Israelites asks, "How can we sing a song off Yahweh while in a foreign land?"
This is also the paradox of our own situation in the wake of September 11. How can we sing when others weep? How can we dance when others mourn? How can we eat when others starve? How can we rest when others toil? How can we live when others die?
The Psalmist says that during their Babylonian exile, the Israelites were sad and they wept remembering Zion. We read that in the sadness of their exile, the Israelites hung up their harps, and when they were asked to be joyous and to sing one of their songs of Zion, they said, "How can we sing a song of Zion in a foreign land?"
(Lord,) Make us sensitive like the Israelites to the pain around us. Do not allow us to forget the sufferings of human beings far and wide, the trials of humankind of our age, of the ignominy of millions in the face of hunger, destitution and death. Let us not grow callous, vengeful, or deaf. Those who suffer are our brothers and sisters, and we suffer with them.
There is a time for joy in life, but there is also the serious consciousness of the plight of our own age and our own responsibility to alleviate suffering and restore peace.
                                        And in the relationships between classes of peoples, it is only justice that will bring abiding peace to our troubled world.
The biblical word for the good person is "just." In justice, we fulfill our duty to God and to all people. In justice, we find the sensibility to recognize all people as brothers and sisters and give them their due with readiness and open generosity.
Let me conclude these reflections on the Psalms by reciting a familiar prayer for peace commonly attributed to Francis of Assisi.
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me so love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. And where there is darkness, light. And where there is sadness, joy. Oh, Divine Lord, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned. And it is in dying to our own foolishness and failings that we are given reason to hope for the future of humanity.

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I was going to add a word about the role of labor in the events of September 11, but I notice that a good part of your program is dedicated to that theme, so I will conclude only with one brief story which summarizes what I would have said anyhow.
A story about George Meany. George Meany was on “Meet the Press” or one of the Sunday talk shows some years ago. The moderator said, "Mr. Meany, last week we had Mr. So-and-So on the program, he's a very wealthy financier and lawyer, and he referred to you as a dumb plumber."
"Well," Meany said, "that's an old one, we hear that all the time." But he said, "You know, I'm from New York" -- or George tended to call it New York -- "and I would a hell of a lot rather live in New York if it had no wealthy financiers and lawyers than if it had no plumbers."

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