Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord
Scripture:
Daniel 7:9-10,13-14
2 Peter 1:16-19
Luke 9:28b-36
Reflection:
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan recently distributed a photo taken by an American military photographer in 1945, days after the bombing of Nagasaki. It shows a child awaiting his turn at the crematorium with his dead baby brother on his back. “The sadness of this child is only expressed in his bitten lips oozing blood,” the bishops wrote.
On the back of the picture is written a simple quote by Pope Francis: “. . . the fruit of war.”
Those who study the mind tell us that reason, logic, and facts seldom move us to action. Why? Because these are non-feeling left brain functions. The right brain, where affect, poetry, passion, and art percolate, is also the place where we are motivated to act.
Jesus knew this, even though the science backing him up was unknown two thousand years ago. That is why he told human stories, which is the greatest way to help us identify with another’s joys and sorrows. His stories, the parables, motivate us to act, to build the Reign of God.
Eighty years ago today the history of humanity was forever altered. An American president decided to drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, instantly killing an estimated 140,000 fellow human beings. More premature deaths came from cancer and chronic diseases in the months and years that followed. A second atomic blast on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, killed another 74,000 of our brothers and sisters, including the baby brother in the bishops’ photo.
These are statistics. But, as Setsuko Thurlow, a survival of Hiroshima, said in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in December, 2017, “Each person had a name. Each person was loved by someone.”
To rattle our right brains about these horrible acts, the noted author John Hersey penned the classic Hiroshima, which eloquently tells stories of the cruel deaths of people with names and people who were loved. The best-selling 1946 book should be required reading for every person of faith so what was done will never happen again.
Tragically these two bombings are tiny examples of what world leaders are preparing. The New York Times earlier this year detailed how, with little citizen oversight or resistance, the United States is rebuilding and expanding its nuclear arsenal, making the planet more dangerous than ever. These leaders’ god is the bomb. They adhere to the long-held illusion that the bomb will “save” us. As people of faith we recognize this as idolatry.
The Catholic Church in Vatican II condemned the use of nuclear weapons. But Pope Francis went much further. He declared it a grave sin to even possess a nuclear weapon.
This important feast day, The Transfiguration, is a memorial to all we are called to be. We are the Body of Christ. On this feast, Christ was transfigured into the magnificent glory promised us. The events 80 years ago are the work of our worst impulses which, left unchallenged, risk the destruction of all human life. This is the opposite of the Transfiguration.
As Jesus’ followers, we want to unleash God’s love on the earth, not nuclear fire and fallout. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is committed to what Pope Francis called all of us to do. We can reverse course, with the Holy Spirit’s guidance. More information at www.icanw.org.
Today let us pray for peace, keeping in mind the stories like the ones John Hershey told and the touching photo of the grieving big brother of Nagasaki. Let these liberate the Spirit in us to act.
Jim Wayne is a member of the Passionists parish of St Agnes in Louisville, Kentucky. He served in the Kentucky House of Representatives for 28 years, is the author of the award-winning novel, The Unfinished Man, and chairs the Sister Thea Bowman Society for Racial Solidarity at St Agnes. He also serves on the Passionist Earth and Spirit Center Board in Louisville.