August 6
Hiroshima and Transfiguration

Today is the 64th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hirohima, Japan, “a butchery of untold magnitude” in the words of Pope Paul VI, who died on this day in 1978.

In the Catholic liturgical calendar, it is also the feast of the Transfiguration, commemorating the transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor, where his divinity shone through his humanity.

The late bishop of Des Moines, Iowa, advocate of peace, the poor, and rural farmers, once wrote:

The very existence of the human race is in jeopardy. We must halt the arms race in the spirit of Tabor or proceed with the armaments race and face annihilation in the spirit of Hiroshima.

There are some efforts now being made by the US and Russia to halt the nuclear arms race, thank God, but so much more needs to be done.

War is the defilement of the human body, whereas Christian faith teaches the dignity of the body, though it may not always practice it. Even God takes on flesh. As some of the early fathers of the church put it, “God became human so that humans could become ‘divine’.”

Also of note: The country of El Salvador, the Savior, celebrates today as its feast-day. Just a few weeks before he was assassinated, Salvadoran archbishop Oscar Romero spoke in Belgium on the value of the human person, so abused by poverty, war, and repression in his country at that time and in many places even today:

Early Christians used to say Gloria Dei, vivens homo (‘The glory of God is the living person’). We could make this more concrete by saying Gloria Dei, vivens pauper (‘The glory of God is the living poor person’). From the perspective of the transcendence of the Gospel, I believe we can determine what the life of the poor truly is. And I also believe that by putting ourselves alongside the poor and trying to bring life to them we shall come to know the eternal truth of the Gospel.

Yesterday I went with my five visitors from Iowa to send them off in an early morning flight today. On the trip to San Pedro Sula we passed a group of those marching to San Pedro Sula against the coup. There were about 100 sitting in the shade a few miles north of La Entrada, Copán. My visitors wondered where they would sleep on the way.

Today on the way back they were marching along the road - about twice as many people – just south of the town 6 de Mayo, Santa Barbara. I think they plan to meet up with others by August 11 in San Pedro Sula, as others will meet up in Tegucigalpa.

In San Pedro Sula I again saw a young man eating out of a garbage bag and this time the stench from the garbage was overwhelming! It really shocked my visitors. What I hadn’t showed them here in Santa Rosa is the town dump where adults and children go through the bags as they are pushed off the garbage truck.

Some good news: I found the new site of the Honduran Jesuits’ Reflection, Research, and Communication Team – ERIC-SJ [Equipo de Reflexión, Investigación y Communication, Compañia de Jesús] <http://www.eric-sj.org/>.

My final thoughts go to this prayer of Pope John Paul II at Hiroshima:

To the creator of nature and [humanity],
of truth and beauty
I pray: hear my voice,
for I speak for the multitudes in every country
and in every period of history
who do not want war
and are ready to walk the road of peace.
Hear my voice
and grant insight and strength
so that we may always respond
to hatred with love,
to injustice with total dedication to justice
and to need with the sharing to self,
to war with peace.
O God, hear my voice
and grant unto the world your everlasting peace.

Amen - así sea - with our help!

Tomorrow, I'm going out to El Zapote de Santa Rosa for a workshop for catechists. The town has no electricity but it's closer to some of the rural communities. They'll only have to walk two hours to the workshop instead of four, if they were to attend the workshop sessions in Dulce Nombre.