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“The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it” (John 1:5, the Bible).
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks reminded us all of the potential of evil lurking in people’s hearts. I guess we had never really thought that people could stoop to killing thousands of innocent people in such a sickening manner.
Despite this, there is a redeeming aspect to this event. The Sept. 11 attacks also showed examples of goodness. Churches opened their doors for those seeking refuge and comfort. People caught inside the towers helped each other. Mission and relief organizations were mobilized to New York City. The response of thousands of firefighters, police officers, medical professionals and other emergency personnel was passionate and caring. When we consider how many of them lost their lives when the World Trade Center towers crumbled, their actions were clearly inspirational and heroic. This is the ultimate sacrifice – giving up one’s life for another. Such sacrifice of oneself so that others might be saved is an act of war – a war waged not against political or ideological enemies, but against evil itself. It is a spiritual war that fights hate with love, anger with peace, despair with hope, destruction with construction, and revenge with forgiveness. When everything is falling apart, it finds some good deed to do and does it.
Ever since the fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden as recorded in Genesis 3 (in the Bible), humanity has been in the midst of a war pitting good against evil. Many theologians and philosophers throughout the ages have pondered the notion, “Can we be good without God?” The events of Sept. 11 confirm for me that the answer is no. There is too much evil in this world to tell me otherwise. Yet, despite the presence of that evil, there is another presence in the world, and that is the presence of good. It is only because of God that we have good in this world, that we understand what is good and that we are able to tell the difference between good and evil.
Two thousand years ago, God became a human and entered the world as Jesus Christ. In that act, He transcended the space-time continuum and became mortal. It was in His mortality that He showed us how we ought to love and live. His greatest command to us was to love God and then others. That God loves us despite our evil ways is the good news that Jesus brought to us. That we are to love as Jesus did is the mission He passed on to us.
Evil is our greatest enemy. It destroys our compassion and love. It eats away at our humanity and at our God-given capacity to love. It keeps us from reaching out to someone in need, and tramples down others in the name of pride, hatred and self-love. When people do evil things, they become monsters and lose their humanity.
The events of Sept. 11 were awful and a stark reminder of the evil present in the world today. But they are also reminders of the reality of self-sacrifice, love and compassion. Thank God we have the capacity to love and care for others. Thank God that evil does not prevail in our world.
“For [God] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13, the Bible).
Peter J. Woelk works as editorial assistant for Encounter.
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