Homily Notes Feast of Transfiguration 2017
Feast of the Transfiguration. “Two Flashes of Light”
Certain events change the course of human history. Such events can be cataclysmic. People know when they happen that the world has changed.
On August 6th 1945, Colonel Paul Tibbets was flying a bombing run over Hiroshima Japan in his B 29 bomber. The bomber was named the Enola Gay. The aircraft was named after Colonel Tibbets mother. At about 8 in the morning the plane approached its target. Colonel Tibbets had flown numerous bombing missions in his military career. But this one was different. His plane carried the first atomic bomb that would be used in combat.
His plane flew at 31,000 feet. The Japanese who looked up in the sky when they heard the engines were not alarmed. None of their planes flew as high as the B29 at that point in the war. The bomber was obviously American, but no military target was near where most of them were. The Japanese citizens went about their day to day lives oblivious to what was about to happen.
At 8:15 the 10,000 pound bomb was released. The nose of the plane bounced up when the heavy object left through the bomb bay doors. Colonel Tibbets immediately turned his plane sharply accelerating to get as far away from the bombing site as possible. The crew counted to themselves. The explosion would not take place for roughly 45 seconds. The airman believed, at first, that the bomb was a dud. After all, the science was brand new. But as the bomb descended, it was triggered by the atmospheric pressures, exploding above the earth as it was designed to do. The bomb blew up with a flash. The Enola Gay was 11 miles away, but the crew felt the shock wave. Only one crew member looked back. We all know the destruction it wrought.
People also knew that day that human beings, for the first time, had the capability of destroying the world. Knowing that has changed the way we think. On August 6th 1945, it was hoped this would be the first and last nuclear bomb ever used. Unfortunately, two days later another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Ironically, it was the spire of the Catholic Cathedral that was the land mark used for that bombing. After 72 years we still live in fear of when the next nuclear blast will be. When we hear of how North Korea is developing its nuclear capability, old anxieties arise in all of us. What are we to think?
In February of 1981 Pope John Paul II traveled to Hiroshima. He visited a memorial that was erected to remember the use of the first nuclear weapon. The memorial was also dedicated to promote peace. St. John Paul’s words still challenge us now.
He said, “On this spot where, 35 years ago, the life of so many people was snuffed out in one fiery moment, I wish to appeal the whole world on behalf of life, on behalf of humanity, on behalf of the future.
To the Heads of State …..to those who hold political and economic power, I say: let us pledge ourselves to peach through justice; let us make a solemn decision now that war will never be tolerated or sought as a means of resolving differences; let us promise our fellow human beings that we will work untiringly for disarmament and the banishing of all nuclear weapons…let us replace violence and hate with confidence and caring.
To everyone in the world, I say: let us assume responsibility for each other and for the future without being limited by frontiers and social distinctions; let us educate ourselves …in the ways of peace; let humanity never become the victim of a struggle between competing systems, let there never be another war.”
St. John Paul speech spoke of transforming a place that represents the ultimate result of war to a place that represented the beginning of a new effort at peace. How powerful that moment was. The question was whether war would be the ultimate creed of humanity or whether peacemaking will be what we espouse.
Jesus went up on Mt Tabor. He was Transfigured before his apostles in a flash of light. What was the message he was trying to send? Certainly, the disciples, who were with him, were shocked by the glory of God. At that very second, the apostles realized that a momentous point in history had come. God had touched humanity. The life of Jesus was God saying that sin need not prevail. Death doesn’t have to win. Peace can reign. Human life is eternal.
Jesus was transformed. We can also be changed by what we believe about Jesus. We can be light to others. We can also change in a moral sense. As John Paul II said, humanity can unite. We can have a common purpose. Jesus came to redeem the world. His mission was a mission that proclaimed universal love for all. May that be what we say we believe as Christians. May we act on that belief. If that is the case, then the world can be transfigured before our eyes. We can see creation as a gift from God. We can find reverence for everything we touch. We can come to see that God’s will for us is not in death and destruction, but in life and transformation.
Pleae note this is a rough draft....grammar may not be perfect.