| Wed April 9 | am: 101, 109 pm: 24 | Dan 3.13-28 | Romans 10.14-21 | Jn 8.31-47 |
WEDNESDAY OF LENT V –Bl. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Pastor, Scholar, Martyr, 1945.
LITURGICAL THEME FOR THE DAY: Bonhoeffer was born in 1906, the son of a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Berlin. He was an outstanding student, and at the age of 25 became a lecturer in systematic theology at the same University. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Bonheoffer became a leading spokesman for the Confessing Church, the center of Protestant resistance to the Nazis. He organized and, for a time, led the underground seminar of the Confessing Church.
Bonheoffer had been taught not to “resist the powers that be,” but he came to believe that doing so was sometimes the right choice. In 1939, his brother-in-law introduced him to a group planning the overthrow of Hitler, and he made significant contributions to their work. (He was at this time an employee of the Military Intelligence Department.) He was arrested in April 1943 and imprisoned in Berlin. After the failure of the attempt on Hitler’s life in April 1944, he was sent first to Buchenwald and then to Schoenberg Prison. His life was spared because he had a relative who stood high in the government, but then this relative was himself implicated in anti-Nazi plots. On Sunday, 8 April 1945, he had just finished conducting a service of worship at Schoenberg when two soldiers came in, saying, “Prisoner Bonheoffer, make ready and come with us,” the standard summons to a condemned prisoner. As he left, he said to another prisoner, “This is the end — but for me, the beginning — of life.” He was hanged the next day, less than a week before the Allies reached the camp.
MEDITATION OF THE DAY: The Old Testament lesson from Daniel is a familiar one as we read again the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. While it is a stunning story, it does have a simple but powerful message to convey. Faithfulness and Obedience to God are the always the driving moral principles of our lives. Obedience to coaches, bosses even spouses has its place except when it conflicts with God’s laws and principles (even if you are royalty). The clear call to us is that we are to stand firm in our faith always in all places. We must never compromise the one holy catholic and apostolic faith, always choosing God over any opposing interests. It is unlikely that most of us in the West will be cast into fiery furnaces, but whatever we face, God is with us before, during, and after. He will be faithful and present with us providing we render the same.
PRAYER OF THE DAY: “Receive our prayers, dear Lord, for those who are persecuted and imprisoned for the faith this day. We ask You to stretch forth Your loving arms to these forgotten ones and provide for them refreshment, hope, and peace through Your compassions and the instruments of peace that You provide for them. Amen.
ANCIENT WISDOM/PRESENT GRACE: “The man who fears to be alone will never be anything but lonely, no matter how much he may surround himself with people. But the man, who learns, in solitude and recollection, to be at peace with his loneliness, and to prefer its reality to the illusion of merely natural companionship, comes to know the invincible companionship of God.” –Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island
Lenten Discipline – Take 20 minutes in each part of your day (morning, noon, and night) to consider people around you in the places you are who are facing a fiery furnace. Offer the prayer above for them and then seek to offer them some refreshment through a kind word, deed, or gracious act.
SONG OF THE SEASON – Gracious Powers