The 11th anniversary on 9/11 is this week. Today I watched a 2 hour special on 9/11 on MSNBC and I was reminded of an extraordinary special I saw on TLC last year. It was called "Heroes of the 88th Floor." I noticed it is re-airing this week. If you have a chance to watch it I highly recommended it. Last September 25th I gave a talk in church and I thought I'd post it here. I'm still trying to keep my promise to never, ever forget.
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I
fear many things in life due to the fact that I watched “Rescue 911” as a kid.
I can’t remember many specific incidents on the show but several overall
impressions stick with me even today. (1.) Whitewater rafting is dangerous. (2.)
You are really in trouble if you’re
being lifted out by helicopter. (3.) It is a very good idea to learn CPR. The
most important impression was (4.) There are everyday heroes. Many times the
stories of the incidents portrayed on the show were recounted by the victims
and the rescuers – both professional and civilian Good Samaritans who happened
to be close enough to help. Paramedics and 911 dispatchers were often reunited
with people they had helped and it was so joyful to witness the bond shared
between people who would otherwise be strangers. While I may have grown into a
somewhat trepid adult, watching shows like “Rescue 911” “Top Cops” and
“America’s Most Wanted” solidified in me a desire to be a rescuer.
When
I graduated from high school in 2001 I planned to realize my dreams of heroism
by becoming a paramedic. After careful consideration I thought it would be best
to earn a bachelor’s degree before beginning EMT training. One morning during
my first semester of junior college I woke up in time for my first class. After
groggily listening to my clock radio for a minute I realized something was very
wrong. I turned on my television to see images of the Twin Towers collapsing.
To tell you the truth I had no idea the World Trade Center even existed. I was
17 and I had never once thought of the financial district in New York City. I’m
sure many of you remember seeing cars with American flag stickers and hastily
printed t-shirts that said things like, “United We Stand,” and “We Will Never
Forget.” I promised to do the same.
Much
has changed in the last 10 years. I never became a paramedic. I’ve accomplished
a few things but there are some promises I’ve fallen down on. I’d like to say
that I’ve constantly kept the victims of 9/11 in my heart and mind. In truth I
have forgotten, remembered, and forgotten again. Just as specific episodes of
“Rescue 911” have faded from my memory, the overall impression I remember from
9/11 was that there are those that seek to destroy us. “For it must needs be,
that there is an opposition in all things,” (2 Nephi
2:11). Each Sunday we have a chance to remember the sacrifice of our
Savior Jesus Christ and the covenants we have made as members of His church.
The sacramental prayers, found in D&C Section 20,
implore that we remember the body and blood of the Son, that we are willing to
take His name upon us, always remember
him and keep his commandments, that we may have his Spirit to be with us. (D&C 20:77-78).
Unfortunately
days, weeks and years constantly pass us by. Before we know it we find
ourselves saying, “I can’t remember the last time I bore my testimony, or
really considered the atonement…” Instead we have a bright awareness of the
last time we were reminded of the “opposition in all things.” The steps we take
on our life’s journey become a little more cautious, a little less guided, and
a little more burdensome. Satan would gladly cloud the path to righteousness
and point our faces to the ground in shame and frustration. In John 8:12 Jesus said, “I am the light of the world:
he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of
life.” (In Leviticus 26:12 we read, “And I
will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.”) Psalms 138:7 reads, “Though I walk in the midst of
trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the
wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.” In a revelation given
to Joseph Smith in D&C 90:24 we read, “Search
diligently, pray always and be believing, and all things shall work together
for your good, if you walk uprightly and remember
the covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another.” In Mosiah 18:8-9 we are reminded of the baptismal
covenant: we are to come into fold of God, be called his people, bear one
another’s burdens, mourn with those that mourn, comfort those that stand in
need of comfort, stand as witnesses of God even
until death that we may be redeemed of God, be numbered with those of the
first resurrection, and have eternal life.
Why
are we asked to stand as witnesses of God even until death? Perhaps it is
because the Savior willingly died for us, but not before suffering for the sins
of the entire world. Jesus Christ understood our Father’s plan and he willingly
obeyed it. In “Jesus the Christ” President James E. Talmage wrote, “Christ’s agony in the garden is unfathomable by the
finite mind, both as to intensity and cause. … He struggled and groaned under a
burden such as no other being who has lived on earth might even conceive as
possible. It was not physical pain, nor mental anguish alone, that caused Him
to suffer such torture as to produce an extrusion of blood from every pore; but
a spiritual agony of soul such as only God was capable of experiencing. ... In
that hour of anguish Christ met and overcame all the horrors that Satan, ‘the
prince of this world’ could inflict. ...”
We
cannot relate to the pain Christ suffered in Gethsemane. We have a vague
understanding of the physical torture he endured after being taken into custody
and before He commended His spirit to our Father in Heaven. Mocked and scorned
to the brink of death, Jesus, having endured several hours on the cross, cried
out, (p. 613) “‘My God, my God, why has thou forsaken
me?’ What mind of man can fathom the significance of that awful cry? It seems,
that in addition to the fearful suffering incident to crucifixion, the agony of
Gethsemane had recurred, intensified beyond human power to endure. In that
bitterest hour the dying Christ was alone, alone in the most terrible reality.
That the supreme sacrifice of the Son might be consummated in all its fullness,
the Father seems to have withdrawn the support of His immediate Presence,
leaving to the Savior of men the glory of complete victory over the forces of
sin and death.”
How
can we not love someone who has gone through all of this for us? John 15:13 reads, “Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” 2
John 1:6 says, “And this is love, that we walk after his commandments.” Elder James E. Faust said, “Blessed are those who
need no reasons other than their love for the Savior to keep his commandments,”
(1991). What is the greatest commandment of all? “Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is
the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself,” (Matt 22:37-39).
For me personally it is a little easier to believe in the goodness of mankind
when I hear about acts of heroism. It is a little easier to secretly serve a
complete stranger than to openly profess love to those I am closest to. I think
it would be easy to push a child out of the way of oncoming traffic. Why is it
so hard to pull myself out of a life of sin? Perhaps I hope my final act would
merit me some special consideration in the judgment. In the April 2011 General
Conference Elder Russell M. Ballard said,
“We live to die, and we die to live again. From an eternal perspective, the
only death that is truly premature is the death of one who is not prepared to
meet God.” We cannot be prepared to meet God if we cannot make the effort to
remember his commandments and the sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We know
better.
Just
as every Sunday gives us a palpable opportunity to remember the atonement,
every September 11th give us an opportunity to honor the events that
unfolded in 2001. TLC prepared a special program called “Heroes of the 88th
Floor” which aired two weeks ago. It focused on two Port Authority workers,
Frank De Martini and Pablo Ortiz, who worked on the 88th floor of
the North Tower. After the plane struck they painstakingly worked their way
upstairs to the 91st floor, rescuing trapped people all along the
way. One of the men they rescued was Thomas Haddad who worked on the 89th
floor. Thomas and his colleagues recalled the calm manner in which everyone
descended the 2,000 steps to the exit. Many remarked that if even one person had
lost it and pushed their way down to ground level there would have been massive
panic. Instead everyone was orderly, calm and concerned for one another’s
well-being. Thomas had reached the lobby and exited the building and he
couldn’t comprehend the scene of devastation outside. Eventually he stopped
walking and at that moment he heard the glass begin to crack in the South
Tower. Although the South Tower was hit second, it was the first to fall. Thomas
ran from the debris cloud but it came too fast. He thought, “This is it. I’m
going to get hit.” He said the debris cloud hit him like cement. He couldn’t
see anything and the noise was so completely overpowering his ears only
understood silence. He was completely alone and convinced this would be the end
of him. He sat on the ground as the fight drained out of him. “Just let it
happen,” he told himself. “Just let it go. It’s okay.” Then something
remarkable happened. He was reminded of a conversation he’d had with his wife
days after the anniversary of the death of her father who had died when she was
15. “Whatever you do don’t leave me. Don’t leave me young.” Out of love for his
wife and respect for the promise he’d made to her, he managed to pull himself
off the ground. He envisioned what the street had looked like before the
blinding ash cloud had covered everything familiar. He knew there was a
sidewalk and a building. He put his shirt over his face and held his hands out.
He walked to the curb and straight into the building where he remained safe
from further physical peril.
At
this time the North Tower was still standing and Frank and Pablo were still
inside. They were last seen on the 78th floor. In the hour and 42
minutes before the North Tower fell they managed to save the lives of 77
people. To know the names of two more people who were in the North Tower when
it collapsed changed my view completely. I lost brothers and sisters that day. We
all did. Due to the sheer number of people who witnessed the heroic acts of
Frank and Pablo and lived to tell about it their story will not be forgotten.
We all know there were more stories of heroism that for now must remain untold.
There were more lives lost than we can comprehend. Families will never be able
to bury their loved ones but we know that in the perfect plan of our Heavenly
Father all families can be eternal. Though we may not all be trained as
professional rescue workers we can be saviors on Mount Zion through serving in
the temple. As President Gordon B. Hinckley
stated, “Just as our Redeemer gave His life as a vicarious sacrifice for all
men, and in so doing became our Savior, even so we, in a small measure, when we
engage in proxy work in the temple, become as saviors to those on the other
side who have no means of advancing unless something is done in their behalf by
those on earth,” (General Conference 2004).
Brothers
and sisters, our world is falling. Don’t let those you know fall with it. We
have much work to do now as Latter-day Saints. I take great comfort in knowing
that those who have perished, those who have been turned to dust in Satan’s war
on humanity, will one day be fully restored. “O how great the plan of our God!
For one the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirits of the
righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit
and the body is restored to itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and
immortal, and they are living souls, having a perfect knowledge like unto us in
the flesh, save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect. Wherefore, we shall
have a perfect knowledge of all our guilt, and our uncleanliness, and our
nakedness; and the righteous shall have a perfect knowledge of their enjoyment,
and their righteousness, being clothed with purity, yea, even with the robe of
righteousness,” (2 Nephi 9:13-14). Please
don’t forget the promises of our Lord. Let us not neglect the plight of those
who have passed from this life without knowledge of the gospel. May we walk in
faith and never in fear is my humble prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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