A captivating sight unfolds before our eyes today. The Father of Christendom, an old man standing on the edge of the grave, looks into our century with the gaze of a prophet and incessantly raises his warning voice, the voice of a prophet.
He sees with eyes already illuminated by the radiance of the other world, he directs his gaze into the darkness of our time. He sees the horrors of destruction that Bolshevism has covered not only in the sanctuaries of churches, but also in the sanctuaries of the human soul, even more so in the sanctuaries of the human soul.
“With burning concern,” however, he also observes the ever-increasing danger to Christian culture in Central Europe. With burning concern, he sees those spiritual movements which, partly consciously, partly unconsciously, seek to replace Christianity with a new un-Christian world. He clearly alludes to anti-Christian endeavors that are increasingly coming to light in the form of nationalistic aspirations. He raises his voice in warning against these efforts, which, if they were to achieve victory, would not only mean the end of the Christian era in Europe, but also the end of Christian peoples in Europe.
Is the Father of Christianity right in his concern? If this is the case, where are the Christians who share in this burning concern?
Of course, the number of those who gradually and increasingly begin to understand is growing. They are beginning to see that the church building is in danger of being consumed by fire! Of course, aware people have long noticed those small flames flickering here and there in the timberwork. And some had already smelled the scent of burning, which foretold a conflagration in the building of the Christian world. Yes, the number of those who are beginning to notice the impending danger is growing.
But there are still too few men who seem to share the burning concern of the aged Pope. We must admit that there is a legion of churchmen, in whom a certain reflection, a certain concern can be observed here and there, but it is not yet a burning concern. — And unfortunately, there may also be many Christians, many Catholics, who are more interested in some earthly concern, a concern about the state of stocks, or even a concern about a good meal, than in the aged Pope’s burning concern in Rome.
And yet this burning concern should truly fill all Christians, but especially churchmen. For here, it is not truly marginal issues being fought over. “Here it is a question of being or non-being.”
And in this decisive struggle that the Christian world wages for its existence, for its existence in Europe, can only men with burning hearts bring about a decisive turning point?
For it cannot be denied: even men who today fight against Christ and His kingdom are men with burning hearts. In their hearts, too, a fire burns, a consuming fire! For it is by no means as if these men were unbelievers in the ordinary sense of the word. The fronts are no longer divided as they were in the Age of Enlightenment: here faith, there unbelief. Rather, it must be said that here faith fights against faith. Here faith in Christ, in the grace of God, in the heavenly kingdom, in eternity. There, faith in the “self”, in one’s own power, in the earthly kingdom, in an eternal nation or the eternal state of the proletariat. Thus, the “Christ’s faithful” against these “new faithful”.
And these new adherents cannot be refuted with logical deductions. Nor do they allow their teachings to be overturned by alluding to a great Christian past. Past grandeur can no longer be convincing to us.” (Jaspers). These people, who are filled with a powerful sense of life, in whom an almost fanatical devotion to their idea burns, are such that they cannot be argued against at all; they can only be overcome. Only devout Christians will overcome these new adherents. But only such believing Christians are capable of this, who seriously take every word of the God-Man, the eternal truth, who take it so seriously that it takes form and shape in their lives. Only such believers who defend their faith by putting their entire being at stake, who do not shrink even from personal ruin. Thus, believers with a “burning heart” and a burning soul for Christ, for the truth. Only then will the “believers in life” listen, only then can they be overcome, when they encounter such “burning” Christians, people of inherited and lived Christianity.
And isn’t it for this reason that many people are disillusioned with Christianity, because they have not encountered such a lived Christianity, as often even the leading figures of the Church were not those “men with burning hearts,” whom people sought from the Church. R.M. Rilke, in one of his elegies, delivers a harsh verdict on the Church: “Just as the Church outwardly stands by the market, so too, in its meaning, it belongs to the ‘comfort market,’ where people subsist on cheap comfort, inauthentic agitation, entertainment, and busyness. It has become debased like ready-made goods, acquired without true personal investment (in ancient times there were temples of ‘heart-squandering’). It has the order and cleanliness of Sunday, is sparse and shut — and disappoints like a post office on a Sunday.”
Those people who are so disillusioned with Christianity certainly cannot be helped by an objective presentation of eternal truths. They can be won over through fervent conviction. “Whoever still believes today that they can come to the aid of contemporary people through the means of sharp-witted debate lives not only estranged from life, but also in a regrettable illusion.”
Paul Fechter has written a book (“Die Stunde des Christentums,” Berlin 1937) in which he states that Christianity today has the obligation to go on the offensive. Our empirical age, however, must be assailed with empirical means (Pg. 172).
This offensive, which Christianity must wage against our modern age, can only be carried out by people with complete, unconditional devotion to God’s work.
Already Kierkegaard had written about how many preachers have turned Christianity into a faith of simpletons, where people were satisfied with cheap consolation. “This simplemindedness, however, alters the standard by abandoning ideas.” Of these sermons, Bernano says in his book (“The Diary of a Country Priest”): “The Word of God! It is a red-hot iron. And there you, who teach, want to touch it with tongs, for fear of burning yourself, and you do not grasp it with both hands… A priest who descends from the pulpit of truth, his mouth still full of cackling, slightly agitated, but content—he has not preached.”
The present time requires different preachers, men in whose breasts a blazing fire burns, which fills the Vicar of Christ. And, thank God, this glowing fire in the heart of the guardian of Christ’s earthly kingdom, a flame from Christ’s own fire, is spreading through the world today. The bishops of Germany are raising their voices ever more courageously and decisively. The Austrian episcopate, also filled with “burning concern,” has raised its voice. The American bishops have spoken. The Catholic world is beginning to understand.
With joyful courage and “burning concern” for the fate of the German people, men of the Confessional Church in Germany have also spoken repeatedly. And their word has also found resonance.
And it is joyful how much ardent zeal for God’s kingdom still lives in youth, despite everything. Many of these youthful fighters transformed the “burning concern” of the guardian of Jesus Christ’s earthly kingdom into the fire of youthful enthusiasm. Day by day, their number grows, those who have understood the seriousness of the moment. They do not complain, they do not grumble, they are not in despair. They pray, they stand up for justice, they fight nobly and knightly, as is fitting for God’s cause. They show that they are serious about Christianity.
This is no more valid for German Catholic youth than it is for French youth. It had a brilliant example in the person of Leon Bloy. A biographer writes about him: “His essence is love, absolute love for God, and he is devoted to Him without any ulterior motive. Amidst all the threats and animosities caused by his absolute Christianity, he remains unswervingly faithful to Jesus… He is a Christian in the truly exalted sense of the word, one who loves Christ, who sacrifices himself for the Master, and whom neither threats nor pains can make waver. Yes, not even death by torture… Neither fear nor skewed considerations could make him afraid to bear witness.”
Decades ago, Leon Bloy recognized that for a cruelly harsh era, characterized by a lack of love and heartlessness, nothing needs to be preached so loudly, and above all, nothing needs to be lived out so fervently, as love itself, lest it perish from a lack of love, like the old ancient world back then. It can only be overcome by the greatest love, by a witnessing love, and if necessary, by a martyr’s love.
We hope that God will grant us such men with burning hearts, who are ready to bear witness before the world, a testimony of love, a testimony of love unto death.