“Everything is grace” – Terese of Lisieux and Dietrich Bonhoeffer

1 k vistas • 1 de marzo de 2007 • 32:12

The question at the heart of this film is this:
Is man saved by the love of God freely given
or are we saved by our actions?

Four events in history show us that the question of justification – of the salvation of man – is a central theme:

1 - On 31st October 1517 a monk, Luther, put up on the door of the chapel of the castle of Wittenberg, in Germany, his 95 theses on the virtue of indulgences. He called into question the Church’s proclamation that the Pope’s indulgences deliver man from all his troubles and sa ve him. He then formulated a doctrine of divine grace that broke with that of the Catholic Church: “Our faith in Christ does not free us from actions, but rather from false opinions concerning actions, that is to say the foolish pretension that justification will be obtained by them.”

2 - As Father Raniero Cantalamessa, a capucin Vatican preacher, says, “the Council of Trent, in 1545, offered a Catholic response to the objections raised by the Reformers, granting a place for faith and another place for good works, respecting the domain of each. We do not save ourselves by good works, but we do not save ourselves without good works. But in reality, seeing as the Protestants insisted almost exclusively on faith, Catholic preaching and spirituality ended up taking on almost solely the unenviable task of reminding the necessity of good works and personal contribution to salvation. As a result, a large majority of Catholics came to the end of their lives without ever having heard of justification being freely granted through faith, without too many ‘buts’ and ‘howevers’”.

3 - On 25th June 1530, the Augsburg Confession made official the separation between Catholics and Protestants.

4 - On 31st October 1999, fortunately, in the the same place in Augsburg, the Roman Catholic Church and the World Federation of Lutheran Churches agreed and declared together: “it is only by the grace of God, and not on the basis of our merit, that we are acceptable to God and that we receive the Holy Spirit that renews our hearts, calls us and enables us to accomplish good works”.

The contents of this Ecumenical agreement – justification by faith and God’s grace alone – has been experienced in an extraordinary way by two spiritual personalities, one is Catholic, the other Protestant: Terese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face (1873-1897) – chosen as patron of missions and recognized by the Catholic Church as a Doctor of the Church – and the Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), a philosopher and brilliant theologian, who was exectued in April 1945 by Hitler’s regime.
Both of them, through their writings, their lives and particularly in the way they experienced suffering, have a surprising mutual understanding: “Everything is grace”. The only worthwhile work or action henceforth is to abandon oneself to the purifying and transforming power of the love of God freely given. Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Terese of Lisieux have experienced this complete offering of themselves into the hands of God:
Dietrich, whilst in captivity and when all hopes of returning to freedom were dwindling, knew that his only salvation lay in the free and joyful acceptance of God’s will for him.
Terese, knowing that the end was near for her because she was seriously ill with tuberculosis, in a deep struggle of faith and hope, remained convinced that in making herself small before God’s love, He would come for her.

Both of them major Ecumenical figures, confirm marvellously the joint declaration of justification by faith and God’s grace alone, signed on 31st October 1999 in Augsburg, and can help us to put it into practice. (See attached the document by Cardinal Walter Kasper.)

Ce film est réalisé par la Communauté du Chemin Neuf via le réseau de international prière « Net for God ».

Pour nous contacter : netforgod@chemin-neuf.org

NFG_07_03_EN_
menos