Over
the last couple of days, like most of you, I have
been afraid. But in confessing that tear I would like to speak to it. It is worthy of our reflection. On Tuesday,
like most people, I was seized by fear; fear for our nation, fear for those attacked, tear for the rescue workers,
fear for the safety of my loved ones, co-workers, and even myself That tear was understandable, common, and even
served a useful purpose. It caused me and the whole nation to be more alert, more cautious to real danger, more
helpful and considerate of one another. This tear is not only a common emotion, but experts arid our own experience
teach us that it is not love and hate that are our strongest emotions, but love and fear top the list.
Today, however, I am worried about have a different type of fear, it is the feat that turns negative and hurtful,
triumphant and compulsive, it is the fear that blinds us to reality. The effects of this fear can overtake us even
before we realize what has happened. This fear moves us from slight concern to stark terror, from taking precautions
to taking on prejudice. Each of us suffers from this kind of fear and, time and lime again, it gets out of hand.
'
I am concerned that that is happening today. After tile unsettling act of terror on Tuesday, I am concerned that
we will be so blinded by irrational and prejudicial fear, that we will cease to see those from Arab nations, from
the Middle-East, from Judaism and Islam as just who they are -- our brothers and sisters.
This we must not do. We must not do that, my dear people, we must not do that.
When we are tempted to irrational fear, as we may well be right now, we must stop and see. We must look deeply
into one another's eyes and souls. There are seven million faithful Islam believers in this country. Three and
a half million law-abiding Arab-Americans, 6 of whom are in Congress, two in President Bush's own cabinet. They
are firefighters and medical practitioners in New York City and some, sadly, are already among the dead at the
World Trade Centre. We must stop and see.
And unless we see each other, how can we do something as simple as kiss away the pain on a child's tear-streaked
face, or as radical as seek justice for all the world's dispossessed. These, brothers and sisters to us. are to
be seen as valuable, as important, and not only for what they have accomplished, but above all, for who they are
-- persons, fearfully and wonderfully made by God (Ps 139: 14), persons with hopes and fears and dreams and anxieties
and abilities and shortcomings, persons living out a history guided by God from an intricate past into new and
promised future. To see these -- our sisters and brothers -- is to share all that, to listen to it, to participate
in it, to rejoice or weep over it, apart from all censure or selfishness or superior comparisons with one's own
life history. To do otherwise is to give into fear. And surely such blindness will indeed ruin us.
At another tragic time in our nation's history, Franklin Delano Roosevelt encouraged us by asserting that "we
have nothing to fear but fear itself," I would rather have us remember Paul of Tarsus who wrote, "For
God did not give us a spirit of fear, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind." There
is an alternative to fear: love, sound mind - courage. Martin Luther King Jr., a man who would have known the effects
of irrational fear and anger, reminds us: "Courage faces fear and thereby masters it. We must constantly build
dykes of courage to hold back the flood of fear... When the evil plot, the good must plan. When the evil burn and
bomb, the good must build and bind. When the evil shout ugly words of hatred, the good must commit themselves to
the glory of love. When the evil seek to perpetuate an unjust status quo, the good must seek to bring into being
a real order of justice" (Coretta Scott King, The Words of Mar!in Luther King, Jr. [New York: Newmarket Press,
1983, 1987]).
Good people of God, in that spirit, we must commit ourselves once more and again to courage, power, and love. Today
we must profoundly promise to trust one another in this community so that fear will be trampled and love will triumph
to God's glory and the building up of the whole human family.
May it be so!
