Six years ago, today, New York Fire Department Chaplain Mychal Judge became victim #0001 in the World Trade Center terrorist attack.
This morning, I heard a radio disc jockey remind us that today is the anniversary of 9/11/01 and I quickly did the math to come up with the six years. The disc jockey went on to explain that she would not be getting all choked up about it as she had done last year. She suggested that we “buy coffee for the person in line in front of us at Starbucks,” hold a door for someone, just be nice.
I pondered this on my way to Starbucks (there was no one in line in front of me.) How do you memorialize a day that was mostly horrible? We don’t want to forget but we don’t want to “celebrate” a dark day, do we?
Then, I remembered the heroics of that day and the days to follow six years ago. That’s worth celebrating. How do people who are faced with a shocking, terrible, exploding experience cope and ultimately prevail? Part of the answer is in finding our heroes.
Father Mychal Judge was a Chaplain for the Fire Department of New York, a job he took after years of caring for the most marginalized people in that great city. He spent all of his life caring for people with AIDS, the poor, the otherwise ill and the people left out of society’s riches.
As a Fire Department Chaplain, he was loved and honored. He was one of the first to arrive on September 11 at the Trade Center. He was administering last rites to a firefighter who had been killed by a falling body. As is the custom, Father Judge removed his helmet to say the final prayers when he was hit with falling debris that killed him. Despite the obvious fact that he was not the first victim of 9/11, he was given the honor of being the first identified. Over 2,000 people filled the pews at his funeral on September 15 and thousands more gathered outside.
A stretch of NYC's West 31st Street has been named after Father Judge, as has a Hudson River Ferry and, perhaps with a touch of heartfelt irony, New York Firefighters donated Father Judge's helmet to Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. It was the helmet he removed to perform his Catholic duties, exposing his head to danger.
As an out gay man, he was loved by the New York gay community. Even after he started his ministry with the Fire Department, Father Judge continued his ministry to people suffering with HIV and AIDS. At a time when Catholicism and Gay Rights were often at odds, Fr. Mychal Judge calmly ministered to those in need, as if above the controversies – above the very dichotomy of his own life.
So…how do we celebrate a dark day? I think I have an idea. Let’s call this Father Mychal Judge Day. It will remind us of the horrible things that happened on that day – because we should never forget – but it will also remind us that the horrible events on that day gave birth to heroes – even heroes that had been quietly living in our midst for years.
With that in mind, I would like to announce my first Father Mychal Judge Day Award recipient to my friend, Rev Julie Taylor.
Julie lives in New York City. At the time of the attacks, she and her partner reached safety across a bridge. But when Julie returned, she rolled up her sleeves and went to work.
As an ordained minister, she wondered what she could do for the relief and rescue workers at Ground Zero. She made her way down to St. Paul’s, the ancient Episcopalian chapel a block away from the Trade Center that had miraculously survived. There, she met up with other faith leaders who sought to help and support the workers. A sort of relief station was set up there, where the workers could relax, enjoy some of the supplies that had been sent to them from across the country, and talk with a caring person.
It was this last part where Julie fit in. She spent hours just being there for the workers, who were dealing with a wide range of emotions as they cleaned up the remains of a building that held thousand of humans when it was destroyed.
Rev. Julie Taylor is now the Executive Director of Disaster Chaplaincy Service, a non-profit dedicated to providing pastoral (chaplain-provided) care to people dealing with disasters. They have provided services for dozens of disasters in the New York area, and they were involved in Katrina and other national events.
Julie is also a proud member of our LGBT community and a close friend.
Think of Julie today and maybe even donate a little something through the Disaster Chaplaincy Service website on the inaugural Father Mychal Judge Day.
