The movie Bonhoeffer: pastor, spy assassin
The passion of Christ strengthens him to overcome the sins of others by forgiving them. He becomes the bearer of other men’s burdens—“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Gal. 6.2). As Christ bears our burdens, so ought we to bear the burdens of our fellow-men. The law of Christ, which it is our duty to fulfil, is the bearing of the cross. My brother’s burden which I must bear is not only his outward lot, his natural characteristics and gifts, but quite literally his sin. And the only way to bear that sin is by forgiving it in the power of the cross of Christ in which I now share. Thus the call to follow Christ always means a call to share the work of forgiving men their sins. Forgiveness is the Christlike suffering which it is the Christian’s duty to bear.
The Cost of Discipleship
Until reading Eric Metaxes’ tome, Bonhoeffer:Pastot, Spy, Martyr, I knew only Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s name and the barest of facts about his tragically short life. But Metaxes’ respect, admiration and love for his subject leap off the pages and into our hearts. And compelled me to read Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship, not just once but now three times. More on that is a bit but first the movie.
The movie: Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy, Assassin was released last Tuesday and of course was a must see for me. The author offers intruiging background in a recent interview.
In the first of a two-part interview with Dr. James Dobson, Eric Metaxes remarks about the enormous influence of young Dietrich’s parents: famed psychiatrist Karl Bonhoeffer and his devoutly Christian mother on Dietrich’s character. Speaking about the book that galvanized the Angel Studios movie, the author suggests that young Dietrich’s decsion to become a pastor and study theology came as a surprise to this literate and accomplished family. But, Metaxes tells Dobson, it was an event that happened in 1933 that changed everything for the aspiring theologian. Bonheffer traveled to New York City to study. There he met a fellow student, Frank Fisher, who invited him to attend services at his African-American church in Harlem. tt’s there, in that church, watching the faces of men and women and listening to their voics sing out their joy in Christ., that young Bonhoeffer sees genuine faith …and the cost of discipleship.
The cost of discipleship
Four years ago, Director/Producer Todd Komarnicki, refused the project, believing it too complex a story to recreate in film. But unfolding events and prayer changed his mind. He explained to Newsweek that “Political courage has essentially disappeared in 2023. We live in a time where to open your mouth, let alone your heart, will unleash a trap door beneath our feet,..
Social media hasn’t made us bolder with our opinions but has caused us to shape them to fit our notion of the crowd. We love to pile on, but we dare not stand out. There has never been a better time to show the world that courage is not a luxury or a fad; it is a necessity if society is to keep from destroying itself.”
Komarnicki’s decision to highlight that 1933 event in his film is nothing short of brilliant. We see young Dietrich’s heart, soul and psyche captured by the profound faith of these African-Americans. Bonhoeffer’s prowess with classical music jjoltd and expands when he encounters black American jazz, gospel and blues. Then, upon experiencing the violence of racial hatred in America’s capital, we hear young Dietrich murmur his gratitude that such a terrible thing doesn’t exist at home.
Until, of course, it does, and at a level never before seen in the world.
Unfortunately, there’s no need to explain why Angel Studios offers free tickets to anti-semites, is there? But the fact of it makes me wonder: are/were there people who take the studio at their word?
All of which brings me to my third read of The Cost of Discipleship. I normally don’t reread books. But there are a few, like this one, that could be read 100 times and never plumb the depths of the writing. The ninety-year-old words pierce my complacency.
“The response of the disciples is an act of obedience, not a confession of faith in Jesus. How could the call immediately evoke obedience? The story is a stumbling-block for the natural reason… Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. It remains an abstract idea, a myth which has a place for the Fatherhood of God, but omits Christ as the living Son. And a Christianity of that kind is nothing more or less than the end of discipleship. In such a religion there is trust in God, but no following of Christ….Discipleship without Jesus Christ is a way of our own choosing. It may be the ideal way. It may even lead to martyrdom, but it is devoid of all promise. Jesus will certainly reject it….”
In this re-read,
I’m reminded of Karl Rahner. Bonhoeffer’s frequent and reverent allusions to Martin Luther in The Cost of Discipleship could be disconcerting to Catholics. But as I read Bonhoeffer’s view of Catholic sixteenth-century-Catholicism, I recall my then spiritual director, Father Paul McCollum’s introduction to another German, controversial Jesuit: Karl Rahner. Father Paul’s reply to my list of questions about my still new Catholic faith was to lend me his copy of Rahner’s Foundations of the Christian Faith.. Although the text is dense, I was mesmermized. For in it, Rahner declares that Martin Luther and the rise of Protestantism were necessary, even essential. The Catholic Church had strayed too far from Jesus. The Protestants brought the Catholics back to Christ. It’s radical, provocative material: the kind that reaps many enemies. Like that of our Holy Father, Pope Francis.
Here’s one more quote of Bonhoeffer’s that is eerily relevant in this post-election celebration. They function as warning and admonition.
“This commandment, that we should love our enemies and forgo revenge will grow even more urgent in the holy struggle which lies before us and in which we partly have already been engaged for years. In it love and hate engage in mortal combat. It is the urgent duty of every Christian soul to prepare itself for it. The time is coming when the confession of the living God will incur not only the hatred and the fury of the world, for on the whole it has come to that already, but complete ostracism from ‘human society,’ as they call it. The Christians will be hounded from place to place, subjected to physical assault, maltreatment and death of every kind. We are approaching an age of widespread persecution. Therein lies the true significance of all the movements and conflicts of our age. Our adversaries seek to root out the Christian Church and the Christian faith because they cannot live side by side with us, because they see in every word we utter and every deed we do, even when they are not specifically directed against them, a condemnation of their own words and deeds. They are not far wrong.
Catholics and Bonhoeffer: Cheap Grace
Happy New Year!
Today we end the Christian liturgical year with the Solemnity of Christ, King of the Universe
Almost 100 years ago, in 1925, Pope Pius XI wrote Quas Pimas (In the First.) Concerned about the growing domination of communism and its axiomatic atheism, the Pope writes:
“…manifold evils in the world were due to the fact that the majority of men had thrust Jesus Christ and his holy law out of their lives; that these had no place either in private affairs or in politics: and we said further, that as long as individuals and states refused to submit to the rule of our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations. Men must look for the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ…”
Just a few moments of reflection about the world state of the world in 1925 compels us to stop. To think about the world of 100 years ago. Consider these facts.
- The first world war caused the deaths world-wide of 16 million people,
- The 2018 plague infected one out of every three people and killed at least 50 million people.
- And then came a global depression,.
In his timeless encyclical, Pope Pius Xl exhorts us: “…if the faithful were generally to understand that it behooves them ever to fight courageously under the banner of Christ their King, then, fired with apostolic zeal, they would strive to win over to their Lord those hearts that are bitter and estranged from him, and would valiantly defend his rights.”
Let us renew our Baptismal promises, And take up our weapons of obedience, faith and love.
