The Tree of Life

The Love of Power 

or the Power of Love?

This is the day the political world changed forever.  The atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and it was “brighter than a 1000 suns.”  Its legacy?  The dawn of the age of potential self-destruction. The driving force of the love of power. 

It is also the day of Transfiguration when Christians celebrate the splitting open of reality to reveal Christ at the center—the Light and Life of the world.  The force driving creation with the power of love.

Take a look at the mushroom cloud.  Then glance at the picture of the Transfiguration.  What do you see in common?  Both are rising up, brilliant in color, filling the horizon.  Which one do you feel attracted to?  We all know the mushroom cloud, less know the Transfiguration image. 

Somehow, the dawn of the nuclear age represents the Tree in the Garden.  What will we do with its fruit?  How shall we manage it to give life and not death?  Nations with stockpiles of nuclear weapons now dictate to other nations who can have the weapons of destruction. 

What goes on globally can sometimes be seen locally in individual lives.  To us has been given the power to create and destroy our own lives and those of others.  The Aurora massacre shows just how far sanity individuals can go—that is, until we think of suicide bomber in Bulgaria who took so many lives of teenagers intentionally.   

The reflection of this ethic for the individual life serving the welfare of others is found in AJ Cronin‘s The Keys of the Kingdom.    The young boy, Francis Chisholm, grows up as a Roman Catholic in a hotbed of strife with Protestants in England.  He begins to uncover his call to the priesthood from an uncle, nicknamed “Holy Dan.”  Francis goes to hear him speak in the town square and hears the words that shape his life and Cronin’s message.

Daniel’s message was a gentle and beautiful plea.  It expressed Daniel’s burning conviction, bared his simple soul.  His doctrine was based on the brotherhood, the love of one another and God. Man should help his fellow man, bring peace and goodwill to earth. If only he could lead humanity to that ideal! He had no quarrel with the churches, but chastised them mildly: it was not the form that mattered, but the fundamentals, humility and charity. Yes, and tolerance! 

(At the end of the preaching, Francis catches sight of Daniel’s face and remarks:)

Then he saw Daniel’s face, lit by a strange intensity, every word throbbing, born of unquenchable sincerity from the depths of his soul.  (pp. 34-5) 

There is the splitting open of atoms for destruction. There is the power of God who splits open reality for us to see him and the way forward.