But August 6 is also the date when, in 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima, Japan -- fifty to seventy thousand people were instantly killed and countless other maimed and fatally injured. On that day, sixty one years ago the blue sky was transfigured by a blinding white light so bright that it burned the shadows of its victims into the walls that remained standing after the blast. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the only two cities in the world to have been destroyed by atomic bombs.

It might be useful to compare the transfiguration of death which the Atomic bomb brought to the transfiguration of life that Jesus Christ brings to the world. The light that shone over Hiroshima brought nothing but destruction and pain. The opposite happened with the light that shines out of Jesus. This is a light to shine in our hearts to make us shine with the glory of God. St Paul reminds the Corinthians that when God said, "Let light shine out of darkness," creation was begun and that the light that shines out of Jesus begins a new creation in us. When we think of atomic bomb the mushroom-shaped cloud rising over the doomed city comes to mind. But the Transfiguration has its own cloud which is very different. From this cloud the voice of God speaks to say that Jesus is God's chosen one to whom we must listen. The voice of God, which speaks of love and forgiveness, is very different to the destructive thunder of the atomic bomb.

As I thought of this I thought how desperately the world needs to hear the voice of God and to see the light of Christ. It is madness for humans to think they know better than God. It is madness for humans to close their eyes and refuse to see anything but the inside of their own heads.

Here are three stories. When I hear of the battles raging in the Holy Land I can think only of the lives the Hezbollah's rockets and Israel's bombs are destroying. This conflict is producing nothing but fear, hatred and anger. Nobody will benefit in the end. Christ is crucified again.

The second story is closer to home, in the Catholic Parish of Redfern. Fr Ted the parish priest listened to God and brought light to the people around him. He shared his life and the love of God with all who came. His house was always crowded and he had a particular friendship with the aboriginal people, treating them as beloved children of God. In turn they respected and loved him and many of them came to love God as well.

Then Fr Ted died and his place was taken by priests who seemed to see differently and to listen to other voices. I heard many stories of harshness and misunderstanding, where the rules of the church were imposed unfeelingly and unlovingly. It is not for me to judge whether those stories are true or not. However, last weekend the aboriginal people and their supporters painted a mural inside the church quoting the speech made by Pope John Paul in Alice Springs. The event was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald and there were a couple of things said in the article which saddened me greatly. One was, "This is not an aboriginal church, there are not many aborigines here." I wondered, why not? There used to be! There are certainly many aboriginal people in Redfern, why are they not included in the church? Are they excluded? Are they no longer welcome? Can they no longer find the light of Christ there, or hear his voice?

A second statement was that "these people don't accept any sort of authority". This statement is not accurate. For the past two hundred years, the aboriginal people have been forced to submit to the authority of the law. They have been forced to submit to the authority of the church and of a culture foreign to them. But, despite all this, as Pope John Paul said, they have survived. When Fr Ted offered them the authority of Christ, they embraced it willingly. Why? Because it was an authority which gave them respect, and love and honour. No one willingly accepts authority which takes away these things and demands obedience and submission. Many years ago Mao Tse Tung said, "Power grows from the barrel of a gun." This may be true, but real authority comes when people accept it willingly. The people of the Holy Land who heard and saw Jesus accepted his authority because his words gave them life and hope and self respect. It's the difference between an atomic bomb and the Transfiguration.

My final story is about a women's prison where the women are prepared for life in the community after they are released. And there were problems, with tension and conflict among the prisoners and staff. This prison was run in the traditional manner of prisons, the person in charge controlled the staff and the staff controlled the prisoners and the prisoners tried to control each other, so that when they left prison they would obey the law. But this was not working, the prisoners were not responding, the staff were not happy and the law was not obeyed.

But the management changed, and the new manager listened to the prisoners and asked them what they did not like about the prison and their life there. She carefully recorded all the bad things and called the prisoners together and asked them what they thought an ideal prison would be like and how they could help to make the change. The result was a bit of a surprise. The prisoners did not ask for anything that cost money or could not be achieved; they asked for things which would allow them to learn skills, to build their self respect and to enable them to live as a community. The manager agreed and immediately the atmosphere changed, the conflict grew less, the prisoners no longer turned to drugs. Instead they willingly accepted the authority which affirmed and encouraged them and treated them like human beings.

Once again, the difference was the difference between the atomic bomb and the Transfiguration.