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Losing someone who is dear to you, at times, seems suffocating. It’s as though you’ve become asphyxiated by profound grief. Yet, as the Apostle Paul, one of the most influential leaders of the early apostolic church, encourages, “when it [death] happens, you will not be full of sorrow, as those are who have no hope.”
German pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who found himself completely engulfed by the rise of National Socialism in the 1940’s—and was eventually destroyed by it—was fully aware of the harsh reality of death, as it surrounded him on a daily basis.
If the life of the average theologian is uneventful, this was far from the case with Bonhoeffer. He was imprisoned by Hitler’s regime in 1943 and executed at the hands of the Nazis two years later on April 9, 1945, at the age of thirty-nine.
If you’ve never had occasion to read any of this great World War II devout martyr’s literary works, you will find him to be a remarkable man of God.
One of Bonhoeffer’s goals was to develop an accessible theology relevant to a world that after the Holocaust and World War II seemed to doubt divine guidance. His theological writings are regarded as classics throughout the evangelical world.
Among his many beautiful and uplifting reflections, taken from his letters from prison, are Bonhoeffer’s contemplations on the topic of death:
“Death reveals that the world is not as it should be but that it stands in need of redemption. Christ alone is the conquering of death. It is not some fatalistic surrender but rather a living faith in Jesus Christ, who died and rose for us, that is able to cope profoundly with death.
“Where God tears great gaps we should not try to fill them with human words.
“There is nothing that can replace the absence of someone dear to us, and one should not even attempt to do so. One must simply hold out and endure it.
“At first that sounds very hard, but at the same time it is also a great comfort. For to the extent the emptiness truly remains unfilled one remains connected to the other person through it.
“It is wrong to say that God fills the emptiness. God in no way fills it but much more leaves it precisely unfilled and thus helps us preserve—even in pain—the authentic relationship.
“Furthermore, the more beautiful and full the remembrances, the more difficult the separation.
“But gratitude transforms the torment of memory into silent joy. One bears what was lovely in the past not as a thorn but as a precious gift deep within, a hidden treasure of which one can always be certain.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer
I am discovering this to be true …
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