are compelled to decide and that decision can only be made by them-
selves. It is no choice of their own that makes them individuals; it is
the call of Christ who makes them individuals by calling them. Every
man is called separately, and must follow alone. But men are
frightened of solitude, and they try to protect themselves from it by
merging themselves in the society of their fellow-men and in their
material environment. They become suddenly aware of their
responsibilities and duties, and are loath to part with them. But all
this is only a cloak to protect them from having to make a decision.
They are unwilling to stand alone before Jesus and to be compelled
to decide with their eyes fixed on him alone. Yet neither father
nor mother, neither wife nor child, neither nationality nor tradition,
can protect a man at the moment of his call. It is Christ's will that he
should be thus isolated, and the he should fix his eyes solely upon him.
At the very moment of their call, men find that they have already
broken with all the natural ties of life. This is not their own doing, but
his who calls them. For Christ has delivered them from immediacy
with the world, and brought them into immediacy with himself. We
cannot follow Christ unless we are prepared to accept and affirm that
breach as a fait accompli. It is no arbitrary choice on the disciple's
part, but Christ himself, who compels him thus to break with his past.
Who is Deitrich Bonhoeffer? Bonhoeffer was a remarkable young
Lutheran pastor who worked against Hitler in Nazi Germany. He
was a part of an underground plot to assassinate Hitler and when it
was discovered he was imprisoned for the last 2 years of his life.
Bonhoeffer was executed at the age of 39 just 3 weeks before
American troops liberated the Flossenburg extermination camp
in which he was imprisoned. The tree he was hung from bears a sign
with just ten words upon it, "Deitrich Bonhoeffer, a witness to Jesus
Christ among his brethren."
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