On August 6, 1945, a bomb fell on Hiroshima, Japan unlike any ever used before. In an instant, 80,000 people died, and by the end of that year the number reached 140,000. That atomic bomb, with another on today's date, August 9th, 1945 on the city of Nagasaki (killing 40,000 immediately and 74,000 by the end of that year) effectively brought about the end of the war with the Empire of Japan that the United States and others had been fighting. You may argue the morality and the justification of our actions at that time, but you cannot ignore the tremendous loss of life and the fear that we have lived with ever since - in the Cold War and beyond.
It is interesting that August 6th in the Church is the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord. In that instance Jesus took his closest friends, Peter, James and John, to the mountaintop and was transfigured before their eyes. They saw Jesus in all of his glory as the Son of God ... in a blinding light and with a power that had never been seen before. This awesome experience was life-changing, and from it came hope and deep faith in the goodness of God and a glimpse of the glory that we are all called to share. It was life-giving. I have always found it ironic that on this day when the power and glory of God brought life and hope and peace to humanity, we saw a demonstration of the power of man unleashed that brought with it death and fear and continued warfare.
Today, August 9th, was the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan. There was a substantial Catholic presence in that city. In fact, a few years earlier, in 1930, Father Maximillian Kolbe, a Fransican priest from Poland, lived and worked there before returning to his native Poland. At a time of terrible persecution of Jews, intellectuals, priests and others considered undesirable by the Nazi's, he was arrested briefly in 1939, and then again in 1941, and was sent to the camp at Auschwitz. He died on August 14th, 1941, by lethal injection after surviving an attempt to starve him. He had stepped forward and offered his life in order to save another prisoner who had a family. He has been declared a saint, a martyr and a faithful witness to the glory of God.
Auschwitz was also the place of death of another saint of the Church whose feast is today - Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross - who was put to death on August 9th, 1942, a year after Saint Maximillian Kolbe. Sister Teresa Benedicta was put to death because she was born in Germany of the Jewish faith. Her given name was Edith Stein. She was a learned woman, a philosopher and professor, who after the devastation of World War I converted to Catholicism and entered the Discalced Carmelite Community as a Religious Sister.
The last written words of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross before being sent to the gas chamber are these:
"The Savior hangs before you with a pierced heart. He has spilled His heart's blood to win your heart. If you want to follow him in holy purity, your heart must be free of every earthly desire. Jesus, the Crucified, is to be the only object of your longings, your wishes, your thoughts … He wants your life in order to give you his."
The evil of hatred and bigotry, of war and genocide, of all things contrary to the revelation of God are overshadowed by the knowledge of our faith in an awesome, loving and life-giving God and the champions and friends that he places before us as models of sacrifice and of holiness. It may seem like a stretch .. it may seem impossible ... but Good does overcome evil ... life triumphs over death ... and true power and glory comes from the Lord alone. Hold on to that reality.
