Bonhoeffer

I was alone in my home last evening which is a rarity. So, what did I do? I addressed Christmas card envelopes and watched a movie on Dietrich Bonhoeffer that I found at the library. I was so amazed at how many times he could have chosen to save himself and self-protect, but every time he chose the sacrificial route for the greater good. And in every new environment he found himself, he was a presence of peace and wisdom, an aroma of Christ to everyone around him.

Toward the end of the movie, when the war is almost over, he finds himself able to go into a decimated church with 3 fellow prisoners, and he briefly gets to share his thoughts with them, saying,

"I've been thinking what Christ will mean in the future. We'll need a new form of Christianity in a time when the world has come of age. I think there's only one purpose of religion in a modern world where people must come and share each other's suffering and share the suffering of God in a Godless world. We'll need more than just religion in the former sense. We need faith and Jesus Christ at its center."

And then he was off to Flossenburg where he was hanged with less than a month until WW II was officially over. A doctor who witnessed his execution said that in all his years, he'd never seen someone walk so composed and bravely to his death, completely submissive to the will of God. A few other quotes from Bonhoeffer:

"To endure the cross is not tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ."

"To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only Him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us."