A Modern Resurrection

I celebrated Easter this morning at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church on Sixth Avenue and Washington Place. Easter Sunday is a celebration of Christ’s resurrection; a new beginning rising from an end. He died but conquered death.

Coincidentally, I visited the Tribute WTC Visitor Center ($10) last Thursday; the day of Christ’s Last Supper before his crucifixion. There, I visited the galleries, took a 60 minute audio tour of the site and heard from John Henderson, a volunteer guide at the center.

The audio tour included 16 stories from survivors and first responders from the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Their 9/11 stories made me think of my own.



I was in seventh grade when terrorists hijacked four planes and used them as giant, battering-ram missiles. From Wisconsin, having never seen the World Trade Center towers, I watched the TV news coverage live. I watched as the second plane struck and the towers fell to the ground.

My world changed. I wanted to know about these people who so hated my country, my home. They killed innocent people. Like Christ’s crucifixion, 9/11 was an apocalypse, a world changing event.

The United States went to war, 2,749 families lost someone who was, who is, loved. The political climate switched course as national security and desire for justice (or maybe revenge) become most important. The recovery process at the site lasted nine months. After that, it seemed nothing was happening.

But, nine years later, progress is being made. During the tour I watched a bird flying with a stick in its beak. A stick to build or rebuild his home. Like that bird, the WTC, despite politicking, is rising from its crumpled ashes.

Curbed said on March 29 that the steel casing for the memorial pools is finished and 60% of their concrete is poured. The pools occupy the one acre footprint of each tower. They will be finished and open to the public by the tenth anniversary of the attacks this September.

The arrows point to the two reflection pools.

“WTC 7, a brand new building, is a success story of the WTC site redevelopment,” said John, our gallery guide. “Everyone seems to forget that though.”

Progress can be hard to see at first but its results can echo for generations. After his resurrection, Christ gave his disciples the final tools they would need to preach to the world. Two millennia later, His message has spread from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

As the site continues to heal, as egos subside and steel and glass rise into the sky, I can only hope that our national ethos can heal too. I hope too, that our healing can spread; that people can begin to see the things we all have in common and to appreciate the ways in which we differ.

Real estate and religion are different, no doubt about that. At the WTC site, though, resurrection and new life are easy to see themes. At the very least there will be the memorial pools, a museum and a new tower to replace what was lost.

The redevelopment has taken longer than Christ’s three days, but that’s okay. Do we really expect the Port Authority or Larry Silverstein to beat a record that no one has been able to beat since that fateful day a little less than 2000 years ago?