
Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship is like reading a blade into your heart where the more you read the more that blade twists, ripping out every bit of pride and arrogance you may have had. When he says being a Christian means being willing to die a martyr in the name of Christ, he not only wrote it, but lived it.
Not too many weeks ago I was able to visit his church in Wroclaw, Poland, (previously Breslau, Germany) seeing his memorial. It is moving and tragic. There is a twofold reason for saying this. Bonhoeffer's grave was never found. He was executed in 1943 at the command of Himmler just a few days prior to his concentration camp being liberated by the Allies. Secondly, and more of a side note, what was once the church he pastored is now a Catholic parish since 1946 when Breslau once again became a part of Poland.