A good, clear, cantus firmus
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is my favourite person to read at the moment. I find that his work stimulates my head and my heart. The passage quoted below is from a letter in which Bonhoeffer helps his friend Eberhard Bethage deal with the tension between his love for God (and the contentment he thought he should feel about death) and his desperate desire to live and be with his wife and child. [Bethage was a German soldier in WW2.] I'm sorry about the musical jargon - if you can understand it, it makes a beautiful picture!
"...God wants us to love him eternally with our whole hearts -- not in such a way as to injure or weaken earthly life, but to provide a kind of cantus firmus to which the other melodies of life provide the counterpoint. One of these contrapuntal themes .. is earthly affection... Where the cantus firmus is clear and plain, the counterpoint can be developed to its limits... Do you see what I'm driving at? I wanted to tell you to have a good clear cantus firmus; that is the only way to a full and perfect sound, when the counterpoint has a firm support and can't come adrift or get out of tune, while remaining a distinct whole in its own right. Only a polyphony of this kind can give life a wholeness and at the same time assure us that nothing calamitous can happen as long as the cantus firmus is kept going."
Love for God is not something that consumes the other facets of our lives. Rather it provides the loom upon which all the different threads of our lives can be woven together - work, family, romance, gym workouts - and enjoyed to their potential. What a wonderful Lord we serve!
posted by Simone R. @ 1:15 pm
4 comments
4 Comments:
Love it! What a great analogy... I'll be remembering that one.
Absolutely love it :) I think I'm completely computer illiterate sometimes! I mean, I just wrote this really reflective 'Blog' (my first ever!) in reply to that fantastic passage which stirs my soul and makes me want to go live a life of asceticism with nothing but Dietrich's writings (and the Bible of course)BUT THEN, somehow I managed to delete it!!!! GRRRRR! Anwyay - Go Dietrich. And thanks Simone for the stirring excerpt I'm going to (try) and print it out and reflect on it this week (I never fully understand things on first reading!)
Don't you hate it when you read a great emotive idea and then some cold, prickly asks for chapter and verse! (thanks honey!)
Any ideas anyone?
I hate it when people ask me to 'Justify from a Biblical position' my emotive views! But good thing we have people like that in our lives, hey!
So I was inspired to think about some Biblical justification for DB. I'm thinking Mk 12:30 (cf. Deut 6:4-6); Mt 6:33(in context 24-34); Prov 3:4-6; and 1 Pet 1:5-9. The first 3 I listed, all deal in some respect with trusting and obeying the Lord with our whole hearts (as the foundation of our lives: Parrallel with cantus firmus). The last one, 1 Peter 1:6-9 I was kind of thinking in relation to the foundation remaining firm and becoming more obvious while the 'counterpoint'(or even 'polyphony') swirls around us. Kind of the opposite to creating a beautiful melody of earthly affection but I have been thinking about the beauty of our character that becomes more like Jesus through trusting the Lord (and maintaining / bringing out the cantus firmus) through trials.
Not sure if I've really understood the writings of Mr Bonhoeffer or suitably supported him through my somewhat 'dodgy' Biblical exposition...but since I loved the artisic way in which DB writes, I thought I'd at least have a go at responding to the Minister's challenge :)
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