December 2013/January 2014 - Vol. 71

The Name Jesus

Excerpted from Alfred Delp's diary entry, 
January 1, 1945

Jesus. The name of our Lord and of my Order  [The Society of Jesus] shall be the first word I write in the New Year. The name stands for all the things I desire when I pray, believe and hope; for inner and outer redemption; for relaxation of all the selfish tensions and limitations I place in the way of the free dialogue with God, all the barriers to voluntary partnership and surrender without reserve: and for a speedy release from these horrible fetters. The whole situation is so palpably unjust; things I have neither done nor even known about are keeping me here in prison. "

The name Jesus stands also for all that I intended to do in the world, and still hope to do among mankind. To save, to stand by ready to give immediate help, to have goodwill towards all men, and to serve them. I still owe much to so many. 

And in conclusion the Order, too, is embraced in my invocation of this name - the Order which has admitted me to its membership. May it be personified in me. I have pledged myself to Jesus as his loving comrade and  blood-brother. 

The Name stands for passionate faith, submission, selfless effort and service.

Go to next meditation > No Death Can Kill Us


See Selection of Prison Meditations written
by Alfred Delp

> The People of Advent
> True Happiness
> God Alone Suffices
> The name Jesus
> No Death Can Kill Us
> Aim at Heaven with All your Strength
>I Must Take the Other Road


Return to Joy in the Face of Death - Alfred Delp S.J., by Jeanne Kun, with excerpts from the book, Even Unto Death: Wisdom from Modern Martyrs, edited by Jeanne Kun, The Word Among Us Press, © 2002. All rights reserved. Used with permission. The book can be ordered from WAU Press.


A selection of prison meditations
by Alfred Delp


Commemorative stamp in honor of Delp, Germany, 1964 

Alfred Delp was a German member of the Society of Jesus, who was executed for his resistance to the Nazi regime.

Alfred Delp was born in Mannheim, Germany, to a Catholic mother and a Protestant father. Although baptized Catholic, he was raised and confirmed a Lutheran. At the age of 14 he left the Lutheran church and was confirmed as a Roman Catholic. In his later life Delp was a fervent promoter of better relations between the churches.

Delp joined the Jesuits in 1926. In the next 10 years he continued his studies and worked with German youth, made more difficult after 1933 with the interference of the Nazi regime. Delp was ordained in 1937.
Unable for political reasons to continue his studies, Delp worked on the editorial staff of the Jesuit publication Stimmen der Zeit (Voice of the Times), until it was suppressed in 1941. He then was assigned as rector of St. Georg Church in Munich. Delp secretly used his position to help Jews escape to Switzerland.

Concerned with the future of Germany, Delp joined the Kreisau Circle, a group that worked to design a new social order. He was arrested with other members of the circle after the attempted assassination of Hitler in 1944. After suffering brutal treatment and torture, Delp was brought to trial. While he knew nothing of the attempted assassination, the Gestapo decided to hang him for high treason.

Delp was offered his freedom if he would renounce the Jesuits. He refused and was hanged February 2, 1945. His body was cremated and his ashes spread on an unknown field.

While his physical remains disappeared, Alfred Delp left behind letters smuggled out of prison. They reveal a man of courage who told the prison chaplain accompanying him to his death, “In half an hour, I’ll know more than you do.”

[biographical source: IgnatianSpirituality.com]


[Selection from The Prison Meditations of Father Alfred Delp, with an Introduction by Thomas Merton (New York: Herder and Herder, 1963)]
.
 copyright © 2013  Living Bulwark
publishing address: Park Royal Business Centre, 9-17 Park Royal Road, Suite 108, London NW10 7LQ, United Kingdom
email: living.bulwark@yahoo.com
.