Bonhoeffer: beware of community, beware of being alone

Wise words from a man who died alone and yet not alone: _LET HIM WHO CANNOT BE ALONE BEWARE OF COMMUNITY._ Advertise on TGC He will only do harm to himself and to the community. Alone you

stood before God when he called you; alone you had to answer that call; alone you had to struggle and pray; and alone you will die and given an account to God. You cannot escape from

yourself; for God has singled you out. If you refused to be alone you are rejecting God’s call to you, and you can have no part in the community of those who are called. “The challenge of

death comes to us all, and no one can die for another. Everyone must fight his own battle with death by himself, alone. . . . I will not be with you then, nor you with me” (Luther). But the

reverse is also true: _LET HIM WHO IS NOT IN COMMUNITY BEWARE OF BEING ALONE._ Into the community you were called, the call was not meant for you alone; in the community of the called you

bear your cross, you struggle, you pray. You are not alone, even in death, and on the Last Day you will be only one member of the great congregation of Jesus Christ. If you scorn the

fellowship of the brethren, you reject the call of Jesus Christ, and thus your solitude can only be hurtful to you. “If I die, then I am not alone in death; if I suffer, they [the

fellowship] suffer with me” (Luther). —Dietrich Bonhoeffer, _Life Together _(New York: Harper & Row, 1954), 77 [italics and ellipses original].