Hiroshima and Nagasaki …

On this sixty-fourth anniversary of my nation’s decision to drop of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 9), it’s a good day to learn about Faithful Security.

And it’s a good day (it’s hard to use the word “good” in this context, isn’t it?) to ponder what taking 250,000 civilian lives looks like. It’s a good day for meditating on Jesus’ words:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Take no sword. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword. If my kingdom were of this world, my disciples would fight. My kingdom is from another place. Love one another as I have loved you. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. As you have done it to the least of these … you have done it to me.

It’s a good day for praying this prayer:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
when there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Thank God for groups (like this one) who are working so that nuclear bombs never fall again.