It is this close affinity between Holy Communion and Christ’s real presence, between created things and the uncreated but incarnate Lord, that is the clue to George MacLeod’s implacable resistance to nuclear weapons. The reality at the heart of all things, the power and energy that holds all things together, is Christ the light and life, the energy and vitality of the universe.
When the constituent element of matter, locked into the atom, is split to release the creative energy of the cosmos, and then that same energy is harnessed for purposes of mass killing, then something happens which transcends science, technology, politics and military hubris. Matter is defiled, the substance of the physical world, sanctified by the creator, incorporated by the Word become flesh, is now turned against flesh. Creation is thrust into reverse, human life faces obliteration, and humanity created in the image of God pursues power over others with suicidal intent.
One of his addresses on peace indicates the theological and moral outrage of one who always saw atomic war as inexcusable blasphemy, the abomination of desolation, the holiness of created matter commodified into the searing sacrilege of a mushroom cloud.
"Spirit and Matter. [Christ] is both these because he is the Light and Life of the world. He is ‘in and through’ the material, [all things]. We have so spiritualised our message, that when atomic warfare was first used we did not grasp its appalling nature. The day that Atomic warfare was first employed (at Hiroshima), happened to be the Day of the Feast of the Transfiguration, when Jesus revealed himself to His chosen disciples as both physical and spiritual. What we did at Hiroshima was to take the Body of Christ and use it for bloody Hell.
The aeroplane shot up to 33,000 ft and in seconds the mushrooming cloud from the explosion encircled them even at that height. Captain Lewis, the co-pilot, amazed at the cloud going so instantly above them looked up and said, ‘My God what have we done?’
Well what had they done that Aug 6? You remember another cloud that circled the Mount of Transfiguration ... Jesus the atonement between heaven and earth; His body translucent; a sort of preview of His Resurrection Body. Was He spirit or was He matter? He was the atonement between spirit and matter. He is the Life of the World and the energy of the world."1
1. Address on Peace, Acc.9084/582, 2, 13 (Macleod's papers are held iat The National Library of Scotland)
The article from which this extract comes, was originally a paper at a colloquium on George Macleod, held at the Scottish Baptist College in 2008, subsequently published in Theology in Scotland in 2009. It is available as a PDF free access at the link below. Please note that it remains copyright to the author and the Journal.
https://ojs.st-andrews.ac.uk/index.php/TIS/article/view/53/73
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