Heroic Catholicism Vs. Cheap Grace
By DEACON MIKE MANNO
A couple of years ago, while we were engaged in some turbulent times in our nation, I remember there was a priest who called for heroic Catholicism during those difficult times. I mentioned it in a homily I gave at the time, but have heard very little about it since.
I’m now given to wonder if there is any heroic Catholicism. I say that because I am completely dismayed how we Catholics have reacted to the political and religious “wars” being fought in our midst. It seems that too many have taken an easy path to Catholicism, the “go along to get along approach.” We see forcible church closings, gender indoctrination of our children, a Catholic president who is championing the cause for abortion, and so it goes on and on.
Recently I’ve had two encounters with Catholic friends who shrug off the immorality of abortion on demand, the new transgender culture, and attacks on churches, including the Little Sisters of the Poor, as nothing to be concerned about. And to cap it off, they degraded my views as inconsequential and non-Christian (one even told me, “I used to respect you”) while all the time cheering on the socialists’ victories in Georgia.
Certainly this was not heroic Catholicism, not as I understand it anyway. But beyond that, it raises the question: What is heroic Catholicism? And what happens when we do not live as heroic Catholics?
Nearly 90 years ago the National Socialist (Nazi) Party, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, took control of Germany. It obtained that control legally, but once in power it began its diabolical rule, stifling dissent, arresting clerics, harassing Jews, and replacing the worship of God with the cult of Adolf; and it did so rather easily as too many Germans were afraid to speak up. This gave rise to Martin Niemoller’s chilling poem, First they came for the Jews….
At about that same time, a Lutheran theologian in Germany, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, did speak up. In 1937, before the outbreak of hostilities, he wrote a book, The Cost of Discipleship, in which he opined that when Christ calls, He bids you to die with Him. In the first chapter of that book, he discusses what he calls “cheap grace,” where he describes Christians who, while believers, are lackadaisical in their faith. He writes:
“Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. . . . The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. . . . Grace without price; grace without cost! The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing. . . .
“Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian ‘conception’ of God. And intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure remission of sins. . . . In such a church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin.
“Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner.
“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, Baptism without Church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”
Then he turns to what he terms “costly grace.” It is, he writes, “the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has….It is the kingly rule of Christ, for the sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows Him.
“Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow Him,” he writes. What he is talking about here is heroic Christianity. A Christianity that does not slump and bend to the world, but faces it, even in times of great crisis.
Even though Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran, he was not anti-Catholic. In fact, he had a great admiration for the Church and had once briefly considered conversion. He spent much of his time in 1923 in Rome, attended Mass daily, and even had his own missal. Much of his time writing was done in Catholic monasteries where he actively engaged the monks in theological discussions.
In one of his monastery books, Ethics, he wrote about abortion: “The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder.”
Eric Metaxas, author of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, told Catholic News Agency in 2012, “Bonhoeffer’s relevance to us today is staggering, and I confess that when I began writing the book I had no idea I would stumble over so many powerful parallels to our own situation. The story of Bonhoeffer is a primer on the burning issue of what the limits of the state are.” What Bonhoeffer faced at the time was that the “state was trying to take over the German church and only a few brave souls like Bonhoeffer were up to the battle. We would do well to take our lead from him in our own battle on that front,” Metaxas said.
Heroic Catholicism is standing up for your faith, defending it even when unpopular to do so. And now it is needed more than ever, for as the prophet wrote centuries ago: “Right is repelled, and justice stands far off. For truth stumbles in the public square, uprightness cannot enter. Honesty is lacking and the man who turns from evil is despoiled” (Isaiah 59:14-15).
Does that describe today?
Of course we have to pray; this is not the time to shrink from that. But as the old adage says, pray like everything depends on God and work as if everything depends on you. Reach back for that costly grace and get out of your comfort zone, speaking up even when you voice a minority position.
On April 9, 1945, while the Reich was collapsing, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was taken by the Black Guards, at the direct order of Heinrich Himmler, and hung at Flossenburg Concentration Camp as an enemy of the state.
(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every Thursday morning at 10 CT on Faith On Trial on IowaCatholicRadio.com.)
