It takes longer than lightening

Group 236

31 WEEKS BEFORE REFORMATION SUNDAY

Some journeys in life take time. Such could be said was the case with Martin Luther.

After his encounter with the thunderstorm, he withdrew from his legal studies and joined the Augustinian monastery. However, historian Martin Marty has documented that he did this in a troubled state of mind. It appears that Luther was still not clear as to the meaning of his actions.

Luther later reported even losing “touch with Christ the Savior and Comforter, and [having] made of him the jailer and hangman of my poor soul.” Luther also found himself “hating” God for placing him in such a situation with no way out.

Then, in the midst of such torment, his study of the Pauline letters caused him to embrace the freedom that Christ, through the resurrection, offered to all humanity. His journey became a pathway to reform and eventually the regeneration of the medieval church.