Father Paul Weinberger, Pastor
St. William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
Transfiguration of the Lord
August 6, 2006
Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves and He was transfigured before them and His clothes became dazzling white.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
August 1st was my mom’s 29th birthday and we went to celebrate. My sister, who is a year older than I am and I took her to eat. It was odd because my sister happened to mention that she’d recently been to her 30th High School Anniversary. I wondered how that was possible because mom is only 29. [Laughter] I will never forget the high school years; this means that next year I will be celebrating my 30th Anniversary of my high school graduation. I look back fondly on those ten years I spent in high school. [Laughter] I know my teachers probably felt that it was ten years.
It is funny how people look at and recall history, even the recent past. Today is August 6th and if you were alive in 1945 you will remember this day and three days after, August 9th, as days that changed the world forever. The atomic age was ushered in with the dropping of the bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When President Truman received the news that the atomic bomb had been tested in New Mexico he was in Europe with the allies at a conference at Potsdam. It was July 16th, the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. President Truman was a Christian but he wasn’t a Catholic so he didn’t say,
“Lets drop the first bomb on the Feast of the Transfiguration.”
This Feast is always on August 6th. If today were not August 6th we would be celebrating the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The readings for today remind us of the significant event that occurred on August 6, 1945. When the bomb was detonated in both places, witness on both sides said that they saw a great and incredible blinding light.
On the front cover of your bulletin is a picture of the Transfiguration.
The picture can be found at the link below
http://www.wf-f.org/WFFResource/Transfiguration.jpg
You can see that the Apostles are shielding their eyes. Peter is shown with the Keys and right below the Keys is St. John and then on the other side is St. James. Next to Christ are Moses and Elijah. Elijah is wearing a red cape that is reminiscent of the fiery chariot that took him into Heaven. At the feet of Moses you see the Ten Commandments. If you could read the writing above the Head of Christ that is written in Latin, you would read, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him.”
The figures on each side of Christ are the greatest figures in the Old Testament, who prepared the way for Jesus. Elijah is the greatest of the Prophets and Moses represents the Law. We have heard a lot about these two figures in the past two weeks. Elijah loved to pray on Mt. Carmel. Since July 16th is the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel you have been hearing a lot about the Carmelites, who trace their origin to Elijah and Mt. Carmel, which is near the city if Haifa. This is the city that has recently been receiving a lot of rocket attacks from Lebanon.
Considering Moses… who could not think of Moses last week when Jesus had 5,000 men along with women and children, who were fed with just five loaves and a couple of fish? Moses was able to feed the chosen people in the desert but it really wasn’t Moses feeding them. He asked God to feed the people and God sent manna down for forty years. Last Sunday Christ showed Himself to be greater than Moses in His feeding of the great multitudes assembled. So Moses and Elijah from the Old Testament prepared the way for Christ. The first reading is from the Old Testament and the Prophet Daniel and it looks as if it preparing for this Feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus today.
It is interesting that there is a connection between August 6th, August 9th and August 15th. On August 6th the first bomb dropped on Hiroshima, on August 9th the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, and on August 15th, the general surrender by the Emperor of Japan in 1945. Before these events it had been said that the Japanese would protect their homeland down to the last man, woman, and child. In a sense everyone in the country had been drafted by such a reckless saying. We saw the tremendous combat for the islands leading up to Japan and everyone knew that every man, woman, and child would be enlisted to fight for the Emperor to the very death.
Most Japanese were and still are pagans. They don’t believe in God and don’t believe in Christ even today. When you think of the Christians of Japan, and there are Catholic Christians in Japan, they unite around August 15th.
It is interesting that this year is the 500th Anniversary of the birth of St. Francis Xavier. Along with St. Ignatius Loyola and a handful of men on August 15, 1534, they started what is known as the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, which distinguished itself up until recently, for working closely with the Holy Father. There are still wonderful Jesuits today, such as Father Mitch Pacwa. The order has obviously taken a different turn. Anyway, the Jesuits began on Our Lady’s Assumption in 1534 and then they went in different directions. The Pope sent St. Francis Xavier to China and he died on China’s shores. He went there hoping to serve God even more. He had already baptized over a million people between the shores of Paris and China by himself. The next time anyone asks what one man can do, think of St. Francis Xavier.
St. Francis was going east. If you get on a plane at DFW and fly east to Japan and you call your friends before hand telling them your plane gets in at 2:00pm and ask them to be there at the gate waiting, this is not going to happen unless it is a rare occasion. We call ahead to check on the flight to see if it will be on time. Can you imagine getting on a boat the size of the Mayflower, heading of over the Pacific Ocean with you destination being Japan? You could just hear St. Francis saying that he needed to get there by August 15th, not the day before or the day after but on the 15th. Of course not! But he in fact landed on the 15th in the year 1549, on that last island in the chain of islands that make up Japan, which is the Island of Kyushu. That is where the largest concentration of Catholic Christians has been centered. It is also the island where Nagasaki is located and where the greatest concentration of Catholics lived on the island. The Cathedral there is named for Our Lady’s Assumption because St. Francis Xavier came preaching Christ on August 15, 1549. It is interesting that Japan’s unconditional surrender, which no one could see possible, came across the waves of the radio on August 15th. This was the first time the Emperor’s voice was heard on the radio. So we have August 15, 1549 and August 15, 1945.
Our Lady’s Assumption factors again and again in these events. In fact, there was a young man who was a very respected doctor working in Nagasaki and his name was Takashi Nagai. He was married to a woman who was descended from a family of martyrs. After St. Francis arrived in Japan the catholic faith spread quickly. Within one hundred years after that, persecution came. St. Paul Miki and his companions were martyred on a hill overlooking the modern city of Nagasaki. There were many North Americans martyred with him. Some of the converts came from Mexico. They were the native people that had been baptized, catechized and ordained, and had gone to Japan to spread the faith. Somehow we just don’t associated Japan and Mexico. The Mexicans were martyred there along side the Japanese martyrs. Doctor Nagai’s wife was descended from some of those martyrs, although he was a pagan. His parents were definitely against him converting to the Christian Religion. His father called him on the carpet for it and told him he was shaming the family by even considering the conversion.
Takashi Nagai didn’t convert to the faith until after the bomb was dropped on his beautiful city of Nagasaki and took his wife. She died at home while he wasn’t there. He found the imprint of her body, having been vaporized instantly; it just left the outline of her body. She’d been clutching a rosary and it was still there, melted together. This rosary is in a museum in Nagasaki.
Dr. Nagai still converted to the Catholic faith, the faith of so many people who were living here in the United States and had dropped the bomb on his country and his city. He was directly affected; his children lost their mother and he was a widower but he still converted.
In 1939 he had not yet converted. Japan had invaded Manchuria in China and had a presence there. On Christmas Eve of 1939 the Chinese had mounted a surprise attack and knocked three hundred Japanese out of action and the remaining two hundred forty were hopelessly surrounded. The commander told Dr. Nagai, who was there, that it would be the end of them if they attacked that night. He told Nagai that he had a job for him and said,
Get all the wounded together around the flag and pour gasoline over the mattresses and if the Chinese attack in force, set fire to the gasoline so they won’t be able to take any of us prisoner not get our flag.
You see, the Japanese were pagan and we not bothered with these kinds of Christian principals. The Commander said,
I hate giving this order but I have to.
He left this duty in the hands of Dr. Nagai and then the Commander left. Nagai was in a dilemma. Every Japanese soldier was duty-bound to die honorably by suicide rather than be captured. When people look back on the events concerning the war many times they forget this Kamikaze mentality that was engrained in the men who made up the Japanese army. After the Commander left, this is what happened. Dr. Nagai said to the orderly,
Tell the wounded to be ready to be moved and leave me alone to pray. Only call me for emergencies.
Nagai went off a short distance and began praying the Rosary, forgetting about the consequences of disobeying orders, death, his wife and two children. He just handed everything over to God. Now this is a pagan praying the Rosary in China in 1939!
Beginning that simple journey and around 54 Rosary beads, he became so absorbed that he didn’t notice the runner who had come up some hours later. The messenger coughed and bowed deeply and said, “Sir, begging your pardon, a message from the Commander; a large relief force has just engaged the enemy and the crisis is over.”
This allowed Nagai and his wounded men to retreat back to the mainland of Japan. He didn’t have to set them on fire and help his men commit suicide. He was spared. Back in Nagasaki he was the Dean of the Department of Radiology. He would use that knowledge to study the effects of radiation poisoning on himself and on others. His medical expertise and scientific knowledge helped us and the world in many ways. It was the first time that anyone had studied these things in such an in-depth and personal way. So, the events of August 6th at Hiroshima and August 9th at Nagasaki are connected to the Assumption on August 15th.
The accounts of the destruction of Nagasaki are terrible to read. If you look at the pictures it appears that just a campfire was there; there is nothing living. It uprooted trees and threw buildings around like toys. It even peeled paint right off the buildings, which is amazing. It is also amazing that Nagai survived and was able to help other people. What is really amazing is that in the Cathedral of the Assumption in Nagasaki they had a Mass three months after the blast for the dead. That Cathedral had been the center of Catholic life in Nagasaki. Any time Catholics were going on errands and crossing the city one way or another, they would stop in and pray at the Cathedral. Catholics used to do this all the time but for some reason we don’t do it any more. This is something we can recapture.
The Catholics in Nagasaki had been praying intensely in the Cathedral for years, that God would take their lives as an offering to bring an end to the war and peace to Japan and the world. They called WWII the “Great War” and the Great War in the East came to an end on Our Lady’s Feast of the Assumption, 1945. In November of 1945, just months after the bomb had been dropped, Dr. Nagai got up after the Mass and gave a speech. This was a very respected man who had lost his wife and his home. This is part of the speech he gave concerning August 9th, after the first bomb was dropped.
On the morning of August 9th a meeting of the Supreme Council of War was in session at Japanese Imperial Headquarters in Tokyo, to decide whether Japan would surrender or continue to wage war. At that moment the world stood at a parting of the ways. A decision had to be made, peace or further cruel bloodshed and carnage. At 11:02 am an atom bomb exploded over Nagasaki, over our suburb. In an instant eight thousand Christians were called to God and in a few hours, flames turned to ash this venerable far Eastern holy place.
So, eight thousand Christians were called to God in an instant. Many of them were vaporized. They asked that God would accept their lives to bring the war to an end. Nagai continued.
I’ve heard that the atom bomb was destined for another city.
There was in fact another primary target that was clouded in. The secondary target was Nagasaki.
Heavy clouds rendered the first target impossible and the American crew headed for the second target, Nagasaki.
This is because there was a defense plant in Nagasaki. During WWI, what is now known as L3 here in Greenville, was also a defense plant.
Then a mechanical problem on the plane arose and the bomb was dropped further north than planned and burst right above the Cathedral.
The bomb didn’t penetrate the roof of the Cathedral of the Assumption but it detonated above it.
It was not the American crew I believe, who chose our suburb. God chose the Cathedral and carried the bomb right above our homes. Is there not a profound relationship between the annihilation of Nagasaki and the end of the war? Was not Nagasaki the chosen victim, the lamb without stain or blemish, slain as a whole burnt offering on an altar of sacrifice, atoning for the sins of all the nations during WWI? Three months after the war, in front of local citizens of Nagasaki, who lost everything, on August 15th; the Imperial Rescript, which put an end to the fighting was formally promulgated and the whole world saw the light of peace. August 15th is also the great Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. It is significant I believe, that our Cathedral was dedicated to her. We must ask, “Was this convergence of events, that is the end of the war, the celebration of her Feast day merely coincidental or was it the mysterious providence of God?”
He was still not a Catholic and yet he is pointing out these providential components even though it meant great loss to himself and to so many.
We are inheritors of Adam’s sin, of the sin of Cain. Cain killed his brother. Yes, we have forgotten that we are God’s children; we have turned to idols and we have forgotten love; hating one another; killing one another... joyfully killing one another.
He talked about how, thanks be to God, that the conflict was brought to an end by so many selfless Catholics, who had prayed and offered their daily Masses, Holy Communions, many Rosaries and many sacrifices for this intention. Dr. Nagai will not allow their sacrifice to be erased and forgotten.
This is the tremendous power of Christ working in an atomic fashion. The atom bomb takes the smallest elemental part of matter and then splits it. Christ does the same thing! In the atomic explosion over Nagasaki and Hiroshima, it caused great destruction and death but what Christ is revealing to us on the Mount of the Transfiguration is a power that is restrained and directed. He shows us on the Mount that He has the power and opportunity not only to defend Himself but to be victorious over the Romans and yet, this is the end of Christ. The death and destruction in Jerusalem could have been avoided and yet Christ shows Himself in this way to release a great power.
The significance of Christ at the Cross was Christ allowing His power to be defused in a way that confounds so many. He wants His power, His gentle love to be disseminated through the most elemental components of the world, through each one of His disciples…each one of us.
We have nine days leading up to the Feast of the Assumption. Yes, we all have problems that are made worse with this drought and lack of rain. Can you imagine if we had rockets indiscriminately falling on Greenville, taking out churches, homes, and businesses? Just think of the fires that the rockets would start all over the place. We are so blest that rockets and bombs are not falling on our country and us. Yes, we have seen death and destruction through the events of 9/11 but half way around the world in the Holy Land, bombs and rockets are falling and people say the same thing they said about WWII. There are many parallels.
“ Oh, the people over there have been fighting like this for centuries!”
Don’t even bother!
“Why go after Japan? They are going to fight to the death of the last man, woman, and child!”
Do you know that there are some radical elements in Islam that say that every man, woman, and child should be used to promote their radical ends of terrorism? This is not just in Israel but also Lebanon. Iran, who is just about to have nuclear capabilities, is supplying Hezbulah with rockets. I saw this on the Drudge Report. I live here in Greenville, Texas and I knew that weeks ago but it was just published on the Drudge Report yesterday. Iran admitted that it is supplying the rockets that are being used by Hezbulah against Israel. It is kind of like saying Iran saying,
“We just might have nuclear capabilities already, are you sure we don’t?”
It is kind of like a dare to knock the chip off the shoulder. What can we do? That is just Israel and Lebanon, not mentioning Iraq and Afghanistan. What can we do? Well, we can do a lot of things but we are not doing them. Why don’t we start? Every day, every person in this Church could pray at least one Rosary and could offer daily sacrifices, disappointments, and problems for a just and lasting peace in the Holy Land. Recently Nazareth was bombed with rockets. Are we going to wait until it really heats up over there before we start making a visit to the Church during the week to pray for these people? Fasting is also in order. This is a way of releasing the tremendous power of Christ’s gentle love that is revealed to Peter, James, and John on that mountaintop. Peter, James and John don’t want to get involved with anything having to do with the crucifixion. They want to build three booths and just stay right there where Christ’s power is revealed, but Christ wants His power revealed in the world.
This week Mass is offered in the evening with the possibility that it will be more accessible to you who have to work. If we cannot see the tremendous need at our very doorstep, although they are not happening in Greenville, do affect the world. So many are at risk and we don’t lift a finger. There is a parable about the rich man who wouldn’t lift a finger to help the poor man, Lazarus, at his very doorstep. He walked right past him. We are so blessed and rich and yet families still need to come together and pray the Rosary and the Litany to the Sacred Heart; pray as much as you can for this miracle. Dr. Nagai prayed the Rosary and that miracle happened. He didn’t have to set his own men on fire.
The reason for the Transfiguration was preparation for the great power released on Easter Sunday; the great power traced all the way back to the side of Christ.
Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves and He was transfigured before them and His clothes became dazzling white.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen