To state the obvious, the human family suffered a great loss when the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked September 11. Since then people everywhere have struggled to make sense of the attacks. I have heard military reasoning and I have heard psychological reasoning. I have listened and prayed as the top government officials strategize, network with world leaders, and prepare. I have heard talk of "justice", war, and "ridding the world of evildoers".

What I have not heard in the days since the attacks are holy explanations and holy responses. How do a holy people form a holy response?

We start by looking to the Holy One. We must trust what we know about creation and holiness, and take a step in faith.

So what do we know? We know that we -- the people of planet earth -- all of us -- were created by the Holy, Loving, and Creative One. Further, we were created in the image of the Holy, Loving, and Creative One, which makes us holy, loving, and creative.

What has happened? One among us has committed a heinous act.

Human nature will lead us to blame someone. We need a scapegoat. If we can find the one at fault, we can punish that one and make everything right again. We naturally desire retribution.

Holy nature, on the other hand, tells us something different. Holy nature calls us to love and forgiveness. Why?

Retribution, as it turns out, does not cause wholeness. Retribution causes brokenness, incompletion, and further suffering. Violence only causes more violence. Love and forgiveness, on the other hand, cause us to head straight to the root of our trouble. Love and forgiveness cause us to remember that the one among us who committed this act is also holy, loving, and creative. We must go into the darkness with light.

What would cause a holy, loving, and creative being to do such a thing? In some way, the one responsible for this act has not been included in the human family. This one has not been heard, has not been helped, has not been honored. This one's needs are not met, and the rest of us have not cared. We see this sort of thing all the time on a much smaller scale in our own families. The one who is hurt and excluded acts out.

So how do a holy, loving, and creative people respond? We respond by listening. We by hearing the cries of the one who is hurt, suffering, neglected, and left out. Whoever has done this finally has our attention. Why not give our attention? Why not sit still for a moment and listen to the great suffering of another?

Why not listen to the terrorist as the one who has been driven to extreme action by oppression and neglect? Why not listen to the suffering of Afghanistan, whose citizens are flocking to the closed borders of Pakistan? Why not listen to the suffering of Pakistan, hopelessly caught in the middle -- between a rock and a hard place? Why not seek a real response which drives us into the holy heart of another, even if that one appears to be angry, unstable, and even dangerous?

If we wish to "rid the world of evildoers", we must start by remembering that the evildoers are us -- driven to seek retribution, programmed to blame. If we wish to "rid the world of evildoers", we must begin by listening -- and by seeking a holy, loving, and creative response.