Thursday, August 14, 2014 (Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Maximilian Kolbe, Martyrs)

Thursday, August 14, 2014 (Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Maximilian Kolbe, Martyrs)

1 Peter 4:12-19

So even those whom God allows to suffer should commit themselves to a Creator who is trustworthy, and go on doing good.”(1 Peter 4:19)

Much easier to just read these words, than to take up our cross and follow them. And so often that we think about what it means to take up our cross, we think about taking the initiative ourselves, taking on some challenge, and not always ‘taking up our cross’ as being judged or persecuted by others — and yet persisting in doing good.

Today in the calendar we remember two brave Christians who opposed the tyrannical Nazi powers of the day, and gave their lives in doing so. 

Maximilian Kolbe was a Franciscan, born in Poland. When the German forces invaded his country, he and his community welcomed 3000 people seeking refuge, most of whom were Jews. 

Birkenau and Auschwitz concentration camps

Kolbe's cell at Auschwitz

http://archdioceseoftrichur.blogspot.ca/2013/10/visit-of-mar-andrews-to-auschwitz-which.html

Later imprisoned at the Auschwitz death camp, he offered to take the place of a fellow prisoner who had been selected to be starved to death, retaliation for an escape attempt by another prisoner. The man cried out in anguish, as he had a family. So Kolbe bravely asked to take the man’s place, which he did. Kolbe survived the starvation for two weeks, and was killed by injection.

        His cell at Auschwitz is now a shrine, and a symbol of courage and self-sacrifice.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer I am quite familiar with. In the early 2000s I was part of a study trip to Germany, Poland, and Prague to learn about the life and work of Bonhoeffer. I also took a course on Bonhoeffer offered by Waterloo Lutheran Seminary a couple of years ago. In looking back at my books recently, I realized that I’ve probably read parts of Bonhoeffer’s prison writings (specifically about the future of Christianity in a non-religious world) more than anything else. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Bonhoeffer was from a well-to-do family in Germany. He earned a doctorate at a young age, and worked as a pastor. Early on in in Hitler’s reign Bonhoeffer began to question the Nazis in his preaching and on the radio. So he was watched quite closely. 

The famous theologian Karl Barth was a close friend, and encouraged Bonhoeffer to get out of Germany. Bonhoeffer briefly sojourned to New York City, but he could not ignore the plight of his people, so he returned. 

The site of the Finkenwalde seminary overseen by Bonhoeffer

He was part of the Confessing Church, the group of Christians who deliberately opposed the Nazis, and he led illegal, underground seminaries, where his research on and contact with Anglican monasteries in England informed the life and spirituality of the seminary community (see his book Life Together for more on this). 

Bonhoeffer corresponded with Gandhi, exploring how Gandhi’s method of nonviolent revolution, satyagraha, might apply to the situation in Germany. But ultimately, Bonhoeffer joined a conspiracy that originated, interestingly, within the office of military intelligence (via his brother-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi), and became directly involved in a plot to kill Hitler. 

Ettal Monastery, which opened its doors to Bonhoeffer while he was 

involved in the military intelligence plot against Hitler.

Bonhoeffer’s writings from prison have been collected and published, and show us that he was constantly engaged in questions around the Christian life. He wrote some very intriguing things about what Christianity might look like in a world that has pushed God to the margins of life, and onto the cross. “‘Could you not watch with me one hour?’ That is a reversal of what the religious man expects from God. Man is summoned to share in God’s sufferings at the hands of a godless world.”*

Tegel prison in Berlin, where Bonhoeffer was imprisoned for one and a half years

In studying the lives of Kolbe and Bonhoeffer we become aware of the evils of which humans are capable, but also of the good we can do, and the transformative power of the cross. 

[I]n so far as you share in the sufferings of Christ, be glad, so that you may enjoy a much greater gladness when his glory is revealed. (1 Peter 4:13)

The site of Bonhoeffer's death at Flossenburg concentration camp

- Matthew Kieswetter

      O God,

we bless you for the witness of your martyrs
Maximilian and Dietrich,
who walked in the bitter path of the Cross
and gave their lives that others might live.
Grant that our devotion may issue in the deeds of love,
and our confession of your holy Name
in a readiness for justice;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.  Amen.**

* Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Letters from Prison,” Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Witness to Jesus Christ. Ed. John de Gruchy (Minneapolis: Fortress Press: 1991), 291-292.

** Stephen Reynolds, ed, For All the Saints: Prayers and Readings for Saints' Days (Toronto: ABC Publishing, 2007), 245.