Dido 't our enemies try to destroy our resolve as a nation and send us cowering in fear just 4 years ago on 9*11 ? I remember it so clearly. I had arrived in America as the pastor of this parish just 6 days earlier. I had so many dreams, so much hope. In some ways, I was not much different than most people who "come" to America full of the vision of a new life, a new beginning, a new hope.

Of course, the events of September 11,2001, now clearly etched in all of our minds, changed that. The stark reality and reminder of the fallen towers and the trail of destruction from NYC through Pennsylvania to the Capital District with the near destruction of the Pentagon can never be erased from our collective memory .Everything changed. Or did it?

I remember so well how everyone cried out for revenge and hoped to bring the perpetrators to justice, looking for the culprit-embarrassed by the vulnerability of being caught unprepared. How could this happen here? People looked to place blame. Our politicians promised further investigations. Homeland Security promised that this would never happen to us again. We prayed that God would bless America.

Unfortunately, after 4 years, 2 wars and billions of dollars spent, with an elusive 9* 11 mastermind still a threat and still at large, we face a new tragedy.

Just as we were stirring our national conscience, in the dog days of summer, readying for another round of commemorations and memorials to offer solace for the events of 9* II, seeking closure and hoping for a brighter and safer future, a new and a much more dangerous, unpredictable and formidable foe struck us-~. It wasn't enough for us when earlier this year we were taught about the destructive forces of nature when the calamity of tsunami struck the Indian Ocean. This time, on our own shores, with a new wave of hurricanes, culminating with the precision strike of a Tomahawk missile, Katrina slammed the vulnerable fish bowl known as the Big Easy-the city of New Orleans on the Gulf Coast. Were we prepared? Did Homeland security save the city? Did we react "swiftly and decisively"?

Instead of getting to the task of saving people, and property, people and politicians started to lay blame. Then, when there was no one else to blame, they called it an " Act of God" -as if to say "it's God's fault". God did not put the city below sea level, we did. As one commentator said, the water is not in the wrong, place, the city is.

Desperation and hopelessness, the reaction of many during this event, is incompatible with the Christian faith. Like General Honore, the "Ragin' Cajun," in charge of saving lives and rescuing the survivors of New Orleans, we must see hope, "a lot of hope!" Hope Resurrection and dependence on God's mercy and His love for us, even in the face of death and suffering, is at the very heart of the Christian faith.

Although human ingenuity can subdue and often control nature, we must always respect the power of God' s creation and realize that at the end of the day we are at its and more importantly His mercy. We must become more like Noah rather than the builders of the Tower of Babel. Rather than trying to overpower the majesty and sovereignty of God through human ingenuity, only to be disappointed by our complete inability to do so, we must trust God's plan and look to him to overcome the floods of doubt that swamp our hope.

This tragedy was an opportunity once again for us to be the co-workers of God and to show mercy and to reach out to victims of tragedy. Our trust in God has allowed us too, to look at calamity with hope, to practice random acts of charity and to see the Crucified God's saving activity in ruin. Thanks for being hope of life to those in despair .You have be-en a blessing.

In Christ's love, Dey sVt!l"voyR.