FaithWalkers

When the Reformation came, the providence of God raised Martin Luther to restore the gospel of pure, costly grace. Luther passed through cloister; he was a monk, and all this was part of the divine plan. Luther had left all to follow Christ on the path of absolute obedience.

He had renounced the world in order to live the Christian life. He had learnt obedience to Christ and to his Church, because only he who is obedient can believe. The call to the cloister demanded of Luther the complete surrender of his life.

But God shattered all his hopes. He showed him through the Scriptures that the following of Christ is not the achievement or merit of a select few, but the divine command to all Christians without distinction.

Monasticism had transformed the humble work of discipleship into the meritorious activity of the saints, and the self-renunciation of discipleship into the flagrant spiritual self-assertion of the “religious.” The world had crept into the very heart of the monastic life, and was once more making havoc.

The monk’s attempt to flee from the world turned out to be a subtle form of love for the world.