The Rev. Lyndon Harris was in his office three blocks away from Ground Zero when the first plane hit the south tower on September 11, 2001.
Harris, in town Jan. 19 to help Charleston Mayor Joe Riley dedicate the city’s new Garden of Forgiveness at Phillip Simmons Park, spent a few minutes with the Goose Creek Rotary to talk about some of his experiences and his current mission for the world.
Harris was the priest of St. Paul’s Chapel, located across the street from the Twin Towers. When that first plane hit, he knew something terrible had happened and left his office to go check on the church’s day care center. The parents of most of those children worked in the Twin Towers.
He was at the foot of the south tower when the second plane hit. Harris and others grabbed children and ran for shelter. And the nightmare unfolded.
Miraculously, none of the parents of those children died that day. And the church stood. Amid all the rubble, the destruction, the choking dust of raging inferno, the church remained unscathed.
“The next day I walked to St. Paul’s,” Harris said. “When I got there, I could see the steeple still stood. It brought tears to my eyes. And it was then we realized we had a big job to do.”
In the aftermath of 9/11, St. Paul’s would become a safe harbor for the rescue workers at Ground Zero. Hot meals, a place to sleep, a place to pray, a place to rest, a place to decompress, the church provided comfort to thousands.
“By the end of eight and half months, we had served over 500,000 meals,” Harris remembered. “We had the best chefs from the finest restaurants in New York helping out – nothing was too good for those men and women who worked at Ground Zero.”
Yet in the months and years after, something would gnaw at Harris, slowly but surely poisoning every aspect of his life. Gradually, after going through a number of personal tragedies and setbacks, he came to the realization that in order to move forward, he had to let go. He had to learn to forgive, he said.
More important, with that realization came another: If this world wants to move forward in peace, we all have to learn how to forgive, he said.
In the aftermath of 9/11, America wanted revenge and still does. It’s a natural reaction to some terrible wrong done to you.
“The problem with revenge is that there is no future in it,” he said. “Or as Nelson Mandela once said, ‘not to forgive is like drinking a glass of poison and waiting for your enemies to die.’”
Harris pointed out that forgiveness is not a free pass, an excuse for past wrongs. One cannot change the past. However, what forgiveness does is bring empowerment to the wronged. It is a readjustment of attitude and an establishment of common ground from which to work toward a future. It is not only a part of every major religion on Earth, it is a vital part of the Christian faith, he said.
“Forgiveness is not letting people off the hook; it is reclaiming your power,” he said.
Revenge, anger, all those negative feelings have been proven to be detrimental to people physically, mentally, spiritually, he noted. On the other hand, feelings of gratitude, love, and positive energy are proven to be beneficial.
“If you spend five minutes in gratitude, it enhances your inner system for four hours,” he noted.
Forgiveness certainly is not easy; it requires letting go of the past. It is a difficult journey, he said.
“I don’t know if I will ever be able to be there completely, but I do know forgiveness is a god strategy for the 21st century,” Harris said. “It is a trainable life skill we can teach our children.”
His ministry’s goals have come from these realizations, Harris said. To that end, he is trying to promote forgiveness in a variety of ways, one of which is to build forgiveness gardens throughout the world. The first one was built in Beirut, Lebanon.
“If each one of us can take a look at forgiveness in our own lives and share it with our communities, then we will already be building these beautiful gardens,” he said.