A Horror Not Left Behind
by Bishop William Joensen | August 6, 2025
This past Aug. 6, the Feast of the Transfiguration, marked the 80th anniversary of the United States’ dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, on August 9, a different form of U.S.-made nuclear bomb devastated Nagasaki. Hundreds of thousands of lives perished in the immediate blasts and in the lethal aftereffects of radiation. While opinions remain divided whether the Japanese were prepared to surrender without our needing to unleash such destructive payloads, in these ensuing fourscore years (as Abraham Lincoln might frame things), our consciences should remain seared by the horrific capacity of humans like ourselves to inflict harm in the putative cause of peace.
The readings for the Transfiguration Feast are vivid in their imagery. The prophet Daniel envisions God seated on a fiery throne with wheels of burning fire, with a stream of fire flowing from his seat. And the familiar Gospel depicts the apostles Peter, James, and John roused from slumber to behold Jesus surrounded in glory in company with Moses and Elijah before the voice from the cloud charges them, “This is my chosen Son, listen to him.”
The lingering saber-rattling of the Cold War has not abated, with the ominous prospect of nuclear conflict still confronting us in the Middle East and in the war between Russia and Ukraine, in which the U.S. plays a prominent role, with nuclear-armed ships placed in closer proximity to Russia. We may have harnessed the intense destructive force of the atomic realm, but in this regard, still seem deaf to the voice of the Son. Jesus calls us to be prophetic in ushering in a peace that the world’s nations’ recourse to advanced weaponry can never generate.
Robert Oppenheimer, ‘godfather’ of the Manhattan Project and lead scientist who directed the Los Alamos team that was largely responsible for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs, was featured in the Oscar-winning motion picture bearing his name. The biopic drama captures much of the history behind the birth of nuclear arms, but unlike the book on which the movie was based, does not convey Oppenheimer’s profound misgivings and dismay about the horrible carnage he and his colleagues had wrought. Three days after Tokyo surrendered, ending WWII, Oppenheimer told President Truman, “We believe that the safety of this nation—as opposed to its ability to inflict damage on an enemy power—cannot lie wholly or even primarily in its scientific or technical prowess. It can be based only on making future wars impossible.”
And when summoned three months later to Los Alamos to receive a certificate of appreciation for his efforts, Oppenheimer first expressed hope that everyone associated with the lab’s work would be able to look back with pride on their efforts. But he then qualified, “Today that pride must be tempered with a profound concern. If atomic bombs are to be added as new weapons to the arsenals of a warring world, or to the arsenals of nations preparing for war, then the time will come when mankind will curse the names of Los Alamos and Hiroshima.” He continued, “The peoples of this world must unite or they will perish. This war, that has ravaged so much of this earth, has written these words. . . By our works we are committed, committed to a world united, before this common peril, in law and in humanity” (American Prometheus, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, pp. 319, 329).
Temporal hope that issues from human pride and the desire to dominate is destined to end in horror, if not the conflagration of the human community. Only the hope that is bestowed by the One seated on the throne from which the burning fire of Holy Spirit love issues, endures until the end of the ages. We pray not only that our world leaders will actually read and listen to God’s Word, to the voice of the Beloved Son. We pray also that we the people who choose and commission our leaders to act in our name will ourselves listen to the Son and be converted, if we are to have hope of being saved from ourselves.