Fruitful.The 60th anniversaries of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will be remembered this month. One writer wonders if this tragedy can bear fruit: "In his Duino Elegies The Duino Elegies (German Duineser Elegien) are a set of ten elegies written in German by the poet Rainer Maria Rilke from 1912 to 1922. Rilke had been visiting Princess Marie von Thurn in the Duino castle in the region when he came across some cliffs from which he , the poet Rainer Maria Rilke Noun 1. Rainer Maria Rilke - German poet (born in Austria) whose imagery and mystic lyricism influenced 20th-century German literature (1875-1926) Rilke asks, 'Isn't it time for the ancient seeds of suffering to put forth fruit?' As we mark another August 6 (Hiroshima) and another August 9 (Nagasaki), let us contemplate his question and apply it to ourselves. How can the ongoing threat of nuclear war--any war--change the way we live in a positive way? How can it bring us closer to God, closer to the wretched of the earth, and closer to each other? "Only when we let Hiroshima and Nagasaki bear good fruit in our lives can the suffering of its dead and dying begin to be redeemed. Only then will we--and our children and their children--be saved from the hardheartedness hard·heart·ed adj. Lacking in feeling or compassion; pitiless and cold. hard  heart that allowed it to happen and that could, at any time, allow it to happen again." (Johann Christoph Arnold
Christoph Arnold (December 17, 1650—April 15, 1695) was a German amateur astronomer. Born in Sommerfeld near Leipzig, Arnold was a farmer by profession. , "Daily Dig," www.bruderhof.com) |
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