To write two posts on successive weeks might seem to be overdoing a theme, but I do so without hesitation. This anniversary has affected me in a number of ways, the first being the full realisation that I was alive when the bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities. This cataclysmic event occurred whilst I was a young child living in London .

 One man who was there when the first bomb exploded over Hiroshima , was Fr Pedro Arrupe SJ, later to become superior of the Jesuit order. His account of those hours is both moving and utterly painful. If you are unfamiliar with it, then follow this link.

http://www.sturdyroots.org/PDFs/Asia/EX_Hiroshimapdf.pdf

 The date, August 6^th, is of course that of the great feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus.

 By what strange coincidental twist did the Introit of that Feast of Light foretell the day of holocaust and heat of Atomic Transformation?

  “All the world shone with thy lightning and the troubled earth shook”                                                                    

 Psalm 76:  Introit – The Roman Missal for the Feast of the Transfiguration of August 6^th                                                                                                           

The Mutually Assured Destruction (with its appropriate acronym MAD) of the years of Cold War has come and gone, yet in many ways we now live in a more dangerous time with rogue states and terrorist organisations far from being safe custodians of nuclear weapons.

 We would benefit greatly if Pope Francis were to offer an updated text of that ground-breaking encyclical of John XXIII , Pacem in Terris , a Christian voice saying no to Nuclear weapons at any price.

An article posted at NCR (August 7^th) by Thomas C Fox ‘Hiroshima, Nagasaki, a contemporary Crucifixion’ refers to the three days between the destruction of Hiroshima on August 6^th and the second attack on Nagasaki on August 9^th as “another Triduum”. Some of the comments were critical of that association.  But the image that heads this posting is from that ‘in-between’ period. It shows the release of coloured lanterns on the Motoyasu river that flows through Hiroshima , honouring those who died. Many fled to the river to ease the pain of burns and relief from the heat of the explosion. In the background stands all that is left of one of countless buildings destroyed early that Monday morning.

 This piece was written last week.

 The Sturgeon Moon*

 A high-flying bird went fishing

in the first days of the month

of the sturgeon moon.

 From a cloudless morning sky

the sun shone on green garden patches

between buildings

as after-breakfast people hurried to work.

The bird opened its claws high above the city

and let go its catch.  

Those who were fortunate

did not know what happened next.

• Native American Algonquin people

give each month’s full moon a name

August is the month of the Sturgeon Moon.

END

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