At 8.15 am on August 6th 1945 - 69 years ago - an atomic bomb was
exploded over the city of Hiroshima in japan. A blinding flash led to a
giant fireball which produced surface temperatures of 4,000C. Heat rays
and radiation burst out in every direction together with a high
pressure shock-wave.Tens of thousands of people were vaporised,
buildings were melted and a 400 year old city was reduced to dust. Many
thousands of people survived the explosion but suffered dreadful
injuries from the effects of radiation.Three days later another bomb
was exploded over Nagasaki.
Today, our news bulletins are frequently dominated by wars being fought
with 'conventional' weapons and also the many atrocities carried out by
terrorists. We perhaps forget the dangers that still exist from the
huge armouries of nuclear weapons kept by many of the world's nations
including our own. Since Hiroshima and Nagasaki no further nuclear
bombs have been used but the danger remains - and heaven help us if
terrorists ever get hold of these weapons.
Although it has been argued that the dropping of the atomic bombs
shortened the Second World War and thus saved many lives in the long
run, it is hard to see how anything can really justify the use of such
horrendous weapons and it is a scandal that they are still allowed to
exist at all.
For Christians there is a deep irony in the date of Hiroshima. As the
horrific light of the atomic fireball was erupting over japan reaping
death and destruction on an unimaginable scale, Christians were
reflecting on a very different kind of light. August 6th is the Feast
of the Transfiguration, the commemoration of the moment when, in the
presence of Peter, james and john, Our Lord shone with the light of his
divinity. This was the light which brought joy and peace to our world,
so different from the destructive light of Hiroshima.
The purpose of the Transfiguration was to make the disciples pay
attention when Jesus spoke of the death he must soon undergo for the
sins of the world. Because of that death and the resurrection which
would follow it, the light of God's glory would ultimately triumph
despite all the horrors the world could throw at it.
This month we have the opportunity to celebrate once again the glory of
Christ revealed on the holy mountain of the Transfiguration.We pray
that we may know that light in our own lives and bring others to share
in it.And that we might work and pray to ensure that the anti-light of
Hiroshima may never be let loose in our world again.
