Trauma and Transformation at Ground Zero: A Pastoral Theology

Conclusion

182 Conclusion Trauma, Trinity, and Transformation Earth-Making, Pain-Bearing, Life-Giving Compline Up the ramp walking feeling my shoes in the dirt in procession. The open back of the ambulance Litters inside, reverently, carefully placed. Doors open for prayer. Uncover again. Feeling the men in a circle at my back I pray again for their souls for their rest and give thanks for their finding for the men. Touching each bag, I bless. Firefighters cover their heads and walk down the ramp. To gather in more. Forgive me dear Lord, for thy dear Son, The ill that I this day have done; That with the world, myself, and thee, I, ere I sleep, at peace may be.1 In the beginning of this book I outlined my belief that the Trinity offers a threefold model of pastoral engagement that leads from a place of trauma to that of transformation . This thesis followed through the argument that this is so because the image of God in the human person is a trinitarian image, and that the God of love, and 183 Conclusion: Trauma, Trinity, and Transformation the love of God, can be experienced in human life in this way when we are acting out of this image inspired by the God who is with us. The analogy Augustine of Hippo used for this image of God, “which we are,” was that of a mirror. Yet the very fact of our humanity and the world we live in makes this an obscure reflection and difficult to perceive.2 Yet in these pages we have witnessed, in the persons and work of the chaplains at the Temporary Mortuary at Ground Zero, some clear images of the love of God in our world. Only God knows whether this is due to the inspiration of the Spirit of God, or through the action of the chaplains in “renewing” that image. However, the profound and moving stories of these women and men at Ground Zero and the community around them show, as Miroslav Volf writes, “the divine labor of love’s suffering and risk . . . engaged in the transformation of the deeply flawed world that is.”3 I have argued that this “divine labor of love,” where we become what we are— the image of the Triune God—is a labor that is reflective of the economic Trinity, God as God is for us in the world, God in active relationship with the world. We, too, become like the God whose image we reflect in active relationship with others, in Earth-making, Pain-bearing, and Life-giving. Yet, these relationships are grounded in a world where we suffer and cause others to do so. In reflecting upon this world we could have used any or many different examples that are clear pictures of such suffering. Recent history has offered us the experience of the disaster of September 11, 2001. This disaster offers us not only a picture of the kind of trauma humanity can experience but also a picture of how far we are both like and unlike the image of God. Those that perpetrated this disaster, we can theologically argue, were also “this image which we are,” and yet were not manifesting love as we know it. Augustine’s point is that humanity is that image through which we see God, humanity is not God but only, enigmatically, an obscure reflection. The point for him is not the mirror, but that which is seen through it. This reflection, I would argue, is only manifest in us when we live and act out of love, as I believe the chaplains did at Ground Zero over those long nine months of the recovery effort. Love is no simple thing. To love in traumatic circumstances, circumstances in which we are inflicted with fear, horror, and helplessness, is a challenge and a gift. The challenge is to build a relationship with others and ourselves, where we not only open ourselves up to them and their suffering but risk connecting with our own vulnerability and pain both interpersonally and intrapsychically. The gift is in so doing, we experience the love of God in us, and through us, and for us in the face of the other. In the end our hope is that the gift of loving is greater than the suffering often entailed in living out that love. Overall, we can see this in the experience of the chaplains at the T. Mort. at Ground Zero, who exhibited a...