TOKYO: 11 August
2012 --
When it is something to do with peace, the Japanese show an
incredible
readiness to be involved. We saw this at the Peace
Demonstration which
took place on Sunday afternoon, 12 August at the Salesian
Parish
Meguro, Tokyo. A few days earlier, at 8:15 on 6 August then
again at
11:02 on 9 August, Church bells rang out loud and long to
recall the
horrific events of the two atomic bombs dropped one on
Hiroshima and
the other on Nagasaki. The topic of peace in present-day Japan
is a
heartfelt one
In the early afternoon of the 12th, around 140 young and not
so young
parishioners came together in the parish church to pray for
peace. They
used a Taize style of prayer. A good number of them came from
the other
two parishes of the deanery which organised the event. It was
the
younger members who wanted the Taize prayer opportunity which
they did
with prayer, hymns and petitions, begging of the Lord the gift
of a
world free from the slavery of hatred and nuclear energy.
Later, the group having swollen to some 400 people by then,
Solemn Mass
began, celebrated by His Excellency Archbishop Joseph
Chennoth,
Apostolic Nuncio to Japan, who in his homily invited all
present to be
instruments of peace, in the spirit of the Beatitudes and
according to
the invitation of St Francis in his well-known prayer.
Immediately following Mass there was a Eucharistic procession
in the
large Salesian playground; such processions are a relatively
rare event
for Japanese Catholics. Later, back in Church, the occasion
concluded
with Benediction.
The two prayer occasions were carried out more or less in
silence,
following the style of a Japanese liturgy, but later in the
theatre it
was anything but silent, with young people showing that peace
can be
built by food, music and the sheer happiness of being
together.
Before he departed, the Apostolic Nuncio commented that the
Salesians
really know how to live up to their spirit of joy wherever
they are in
the world.
We hope this demonstration may be a seed bearing the fruit of
peace
that the Risen Lord has promised us and for which there is so
much need
everywhere.
