Where was God?!
We often cry out for God’s presence when we face unbearable suffering or unfathomable catastrophic phenomenon. Perhaps, it is our attempt to draw meaning in it.
“Where was God?!” - This must be what Elijah wondered upon hearing His command to go out of the cave where he was hiding in fear and stand on Mount Horeb as He was passing by (1 Kings 19:11). He was hiding in the cave because of fear of being captured and killed by a wicked pagan queen of Israel, Jezebel, who brought Baal worship to this northern kingdom of the Israelites (i.e. 1 Kings 18:16-19:9).
Then, a powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks, an earthquake came, followed by a fire. But God was not found in none of them (1 Kings 19:11-12a). But, when a gentile whisper came, after the fire, Elijah recognized the presence of God, covering his face with his cloak out of reverence and finally came out of the cave (1 Kings 19:12b-13).
What Elijah came out of was not just the cave but his fear. So he went on to complete his mission for God (1 Kings 19:14-2 Kings 2:12).
This story of Elijah, a prophet commissioned by God to bring Israel, the northern kingdom, back to faith in God, during the 9th BC, is reflected in the First Reading of the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A (1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a).
This year, 2026, this reading was read at Mass on the 81st memorial day of the dropping of “Fat Man”, a plutonium bomb, upon the City of Nagasaki, Japan, August 9, 1945, is also the 19th Sunday, on Cycle A. There is certainly something in this story of Elijah’s experience to the 1945 tragedy of Nagasaki.
At 11:02 am, “Fat Man” was dropped from a B-29 US bomber, in Nagasaki. This was the second atomic bomb dropped in Japan, following the dropping of a uranium bomb, “Little Boy”, in Hiroshima on the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, 1945.
In fact, “Fat Man” was originally to be dropped in Kokura, Fukuoka, Japan, on August 9, 1945. However, B-29 bomber’s pilot could not see the target because of the heavily foggy or smoky air condition there. So, it was decided to drop the bomb in Nagasaki, instead. Though it was to be on industrial facilities were, where the pilot could see through a break in the cloud was on the Urakami district, according to the pilot’s log. In contrast, the meteorological record and testimonies of people in Nagasaki indicate that the weather in the morning of that day was fine.
Regardless of the gap between the pilot’s record and the record of the Nagasaki meteorological station’s record, as well as, testimonies of people in Nagasaki, “Fat Man” was dropped and exploded upon where many Catholics lived around the cathedral.
Many were evaporated at the moment of the blast. If they did not disappear without a trace due to a certain distance from the epicenter, they were incinerated. If not completely consumed by fire, reduced to ashes, many corps were left severely charred, soon to be infested with maggots. As Hiroshima was transformed into a hell on earth upon the dropping of “Little Boy”, an uranium bomb, so was Nagasaki upon the dropping of “Fat Man” a plutonium bomb.
Those who managed to survive were in the state of desolation.
But the omnipresent God (i.e. Psalm 139:7-10) was somewhere, or wasn’t He?
Was He found in the blast and the destructive forces of the bomb?
Of course not! God was not in all of these destructions brought by the bomb because the tragedies were what human evil had created. This was indicated in these words of Robert Oppenheimer (“Physics in the Contemporary World,” (1948) Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists vol. 4, Issue 3):
The physics which played the decisive part in the development of the atomic bomb came straight out of our laboratories and our journals. Despite the vision and the far seeing wisdom of our wartime heads of state, the physicists felt a peculiarly intimate responsibility for suggesting, for supporting, and in the end, in large measure, for achieving, the realization of atomic weapons. Nor can we forget that these weapons, as they were in fact used, dramatized so mercilessly the inhumanity and evil of modern war. In some sort of crude sense which no vulgarity, no humor, no over-statement can quite extinguish, the physicists have known sin; and this is a knowledge which they cannot lose [...].
God was not found in the flash of the atomic light. Not in the 4,000°C heat. Not in the radiation. Not in that destructive wind, either. As Elijah did not find God in the destructive wind, the earthquake, and the fire.
Certainly, because “Fat Man” was a product of human evil, as in the case of “Little Boy”, all these catastrophic forces of an atomic bomb are evil, as a result of what St. Augustine of Hippo calls “privatio boni”, deprivation of the goodness in God’s Creation by human minds.
Then, where was God?
Many believers must have wondered, as Elijah could have when he did not find Him in the destructive wind, the earthquake, and the fire.
Those who are anti-Catholic regarded the atomic bomb that killed many Catholics as a divine punishment on Catholics. This can reflect long-standing hatred toward Catholics in Japan, rooted in 286 years of persecution, from 1597 until 1873. There are people who attributed it to God’s punishment because of Japan’s military aggression during the war. But those who were killed by the atomic bomb were innocent citizens. The bomb was dropped above a residential area where Catholics were concentrated. The military leaders who were responsible for the war were not punished until the Allied Forces held tribunals after the war. Those who subscribe to utilitarianism make moral justification of the bombing, saying that this second atomic bomb was dropped in Nagasaki so that more lives could be saved as it prompted Japan to accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration to end the war, comparing the “relatively smaller” number of the victims of the bombs to the number of potential casualties, if Japan had continued to fight. The very innocent human lives are reduced to a mere moral calculus of utilitarianism, a typical case for “the trolly operator’s dilemma problem”.
These are products of typical human minds, different from God’s (i.e. Isaiah 55:8-9). They are not able to address “where God possibly was”. What is necessary to find God and draw meaning with this utterly horrific event is to align our minds to God through the Holy Spirit (i.e. Romans 8:5-8), trusting Him unconditionally (i.e. Proverbs 3:5-6). For this reason, St. Ignatius of Loyola developed the Spiritual Exercises so that God may be found in all things, even in tragedies, if we are committed (i.e. Jeremiah 29:13). Otherwise, we risk ourselves to slip into a trap in our theodicy quest, a problem of evil.
God surely did not abandon innocent citizens of Nagasaki, especially faithful believers, in desolation even though they experienced the forlorn state of mind (i.e. Psalm 22:1).
A Catholic physician, a professor of radiology at Nagasaki University, Dr. Takashi Nagai, knew, that the tragedy was not God’s punishment. He recognized God’s presence even in the hellish reality. He was significantly wounded and lost his beloved wife, Midori, to the evil forces of the bomb. He suffered physically, psychologically, and spiritually. Nevertheless, he tirelessly and selflessly took care of many injured people not only as a physician but as a man of faith, living the Gospel teaching of Jesus who commanded to love one another as he loves us (i.e. John 13:34). Out of his agape, he took care of them as he would do for himself (i.e. Matthew 22:39; Leviticus 19:18) and as the Good Samaritan did for a stranger (i.e. Luke 10:30-35). And this act of love was associated with his love of God with all his heart, soul, and mind (i.e. Matthew 22:37-38; Deuteronomy 6:5). Indeed, God was with him (i.e. Psalm 46:8), and he was with Him.
The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because He needs anything. Rather it is He who gives to everyone life and breath and everything. He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for Him and find Him, though indeed He is not far from any one of us. For “In Him we live and move and have our being,” as even some of your poets have said, “For we too are His offspring.” (Acts 17:24-28)
In the aftermath of the plutonium bomb’s explosion, Dr. Nagai embodied the fact that God was not far but rather closer to any of victim of the bomb’s devastating effects. He was, indeed, with the victims and within them in their hearts for their faith. God’s racham out of Him chesed , was with them, both the deceased and the survived. This was revealed through Dr. Nagai’s actions, as it must have been shown to him in his contemplative prayers. The way Dr. Nagai responded to this the calamitous reality caused by human evil also called others to seek God in their grief, pain, suffering, struggle, and dwindling hope.
In fact, through his steadfast faith, Dr. Nagai recognized the apocalyptic devastation of Nagasaki as God’s providence to be thankful.
This sounds so counterintuitive to human minds. However, a person whose heart and mind are aligned to God may find God beyond what seems paradoxical in reality. This is comparable to St. Paul finding joy in suffering, knowing that God has poured out His love through the Holy Spirit, to keep hope and to further grow in faith-filled character (i.e. Romans 5:2-5). Finding peace in infirmity that leads to death, as experienced by Fr. Pedro Arrupe and Cardinal Joseph Bernadine, is also comparable to this.
While many believers wondered “why us to suffer and our loved ones to have been killed” and worried, “if those who were destroyed by the bomb had committed a grave sin triggering God’s wrath”, Dr. Takashi expressed his view at the first memorial service on November 2, 1945, in these words (as recorded in Fr. Paul Glynn’s “Song of Nagasaki”, translated from the original words were written by Dr. Nagai in his ”The Bells of Nagasaki”):
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 blemish, slain as a whole burnt offering on an altar of sacrifice, atoning for the sins of all the nations during World War II?
We are inheritors of Adam’s sin… of Cain’s sin. He killed his brother. Yes, we have forgotten we are God’s children. We have turned to idols and forgotten love. Hating one another, killing one another, joyfully killing one another! At last the evil and horrific conflict came to an end, but mere repentance was not enough for peace… We had to offer a stupendous sacrifice… Cities had been leveled. But even that was no enough… Only this hansai [holocaust] on His altar… so that many millions of lives might be saved.
……
How noble, how splendid, was that holocaust of midnight August 9, when flames soared up from the cathedral, dispelling darkness and bringing the light of peace [the emperor is said to have given his agreement in Tokyo for peace at the exact time the Urakami cathedral burst into flames]. In the very depths of our grief, we were able to gaze up to something beautiful, pure, and sublime.
……
Happy are those who weep; they shall be comforted. We must walk the way of reparation… ridiculed, whipped, punished for our crimes, sweaty and bloody. But we can turn our minds to Jesus carrying his Cross up the hill to Calvary… The Lord has given; the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Let us be thankful that Nagasaki was chosen for the whole burnt sacrifice! Let us be thankful that through this sacrifice, peace was granted to the world and religious freedom to Japan.
Now Dr, Nagai offers an answer to a question, “Why faithful people of Nagasaki have been killed and have to suffer?” And it is because God has chosen the faithful of Nagasaki, especially in the district of Urakami, to be a holocaust to atone human sin of the war , which also led to the development and the use of “Fat Man” on Nagasaki, as well as, “Little Boy” on Hiroshima. The faithful who were sacrificed by “Fat Man” were also to redeem peace on earth from the bonds of human evil.
Namely, Dr. Nagai juxtaposed the victims of the atomic bomb to Jesus who died on the Cross. Indeed, what killed Jesus was human evil, culminating in all brutal acts inflicted on him on Good Friday.
This view of Dr. Nagai reflects these words in the Latter to the Hebrews in regard to Jesus, in connection to David’s words in Psalm 40:7-9:
Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of them, it can never make perfect those who come to worship by the same sacrifices that they offer continually each year. Otherwise, would not the sacrifices have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, once cleansed, would no longer have had any consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is only a yearly remembrance of sins, for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats take away sins. For this reason, when he came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight in. Then I said, ‘As is written of me in the scroll, Behold, I come to do your will, O God.’” First he says, “Sacrifices and offerings, holocausts and sin offerings, you neither desired nor delighted in.” These are offered according to the law. Then he says, “Behold, I come to do your will.” He takes away the first to establish the second. By this “will,” we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Hebrews 10:1-10; cf. Psalm 40:7-9; cf. Leviticus 14:19-20).
Of course, this is not to say that the faithful of Nagasaki who became a holocaust to atone human sin of the war are to be put on the scale of Jesus’ self-sacrifice to reconcile us with God as our eternal High Priest. Rather, it is to augment the redemptive suffering of Jesus on the Cross so that we may find meaning of tragedies caused by human evil, with joy and peace, in the deaths of the faithful and their suffering (i.e. Colossians 1:24), as addressed by St. John Paul II, in his 1984 Apostolic Letter, “Salvifici Doloris”.
As Elijah found God in a gentle whispering, following the wind, earthquake, and fire, to resume his mission anew, overcoming fear 1 Kings 19:9-21), the faithful of Nagasaki found God through the above words of Dr. Nagai and renewed hope and strengths to restore the city from the destruction. And so have done many more since that memorial service. Otherwise, we would not see the City of Nagasaki, with the Immaculate Conception Cathedral of Urakami, standing as it does today, to give powerful testimony of omnipresence God’s providence enabling the faithful of Nagasaki to endure suffering with joy and peace.
Today, we continue to find God in the sound of the bells of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral of Urakami, Nagasaki, reflecting Dr. Nagai's view.
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