"He is the man on the outskirts, standing in the
shadows, silently waiting, there when wanted and always ready to
help. He is the man in whose life God is constantly intervening
with warnings and visions. Without complaint he allows his own
plans to be seaside. His life is a succession of prophecies
and dream-messages, of packing up and moving on. He is the man who
dreams of setting up a quiet household, simply leading a
decent home life and going about his everyday affairs, attending to
his business and worshiping God and who, instead, is condemned to
a life of wondering. Beset with doubts, heavy-hearted and
uneasy in his mind, his whole life disrupted, he has to take
to the open road, to make his way through an unfriendly
country finding no shelter but a miserable stable for those he
holds most dear. He
is the man who sets aside all thought of self
and shoulders his responsibilities bravely-and obeys.
His message is willing obedience. He is the man
who serves. It never enters his head to question God's
commands; he makes all the necessary preparations and is ready when
God's call comes. Willing, unquestioning service is the secret of
his life. It is his message for us and his judgment of us. How proud
and presumptuous and self-sufficient we are. We have crabbed and confined God within the pitiable limits of our obstinacy,
our complacency, our opportunism, our mania for
"self-expression". We have given God-and with him everything that is noble and
spiritual and holy--only the minimum of recognition, only as
much as would serve to flatter our self-esteem and further
self-will. Just how wrong this is life itself has shown us since in
consequence of ur attitude we have come to abject bondage
dominated by ruthless states which force the individual to
sink his identity in the common mass and give his service whether he
wishes or not. The prayer of St. Paul-do with me what thou
wilt-the quiet and willing readiness to serve of the man
Joseph, could lead us to a truer and more genuine freedom".
Fr. Alfred
Delp was a German Jesuit priest and a
philosopher of the German Resistance. Part of the inner Kreisau Circle
resistance group, he is considered a significant figure in Catholic resistance
to Nazism. Implicated in the failed 1944 July Plot to overthrow the Nazi
Dictator Adolf Hitler, Delp was arrested, and sentenced to death. He was
executed in 1945.
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