We have said it here many times before, that conflict with the world is inevitable for the practicing Christian. This simple truth may not be remarkable, but it seems that from time to time the body of Christ needs to be reminded of it. In this age of Islamic violence, however, it may serve our readers best to define what kind of conflict is permissible by Kingdom standards. Sometimes the best way to define a concept is to illustrate it.

“They who want to win the world for Christ must have the courage to come into conflict with it.”

Today we bring you the example of Titus Brandsma, who is quoted above. He didn’t just talk the talk, though, he walked the walk until it killed him. But we’re getting ahead of the story.

Born in 1881, Titus Brandsma grew up on his parent’s dairy farm in Friesland. As a boy he attended a Franciscan minor-seminary to prepare for ministry, and started off as a friar in the Carmelite tradition. He became a priest in 1905 and obtained his doctorate in Philosophy four years later. He was a founding profesor of the Catholic University in Nijmegen, and after a time of professorship that earned him the respect of students and faculty alike he became the schools Rectus Magnus. His successes were never attributed to a un unhealthy drive but rather for his delight in the Lord.

“I see God in the works of his hands and the marks of his love in every visible thing, and it sometimes happens that I am seized by a supreme joy which is above all other joys.”

His intelligence and boundless energy lead him to more than scholastic accomplishments, he also worked as a journalist and became the ecclesiastical advisor to Catholic Journalists in 1935. It was a time when Hitler was continuing to grow in power and only a few short years before World War II would be unleashed. As the Nazi threat increased Titus took up his pen and profound philosophical and biblical mind to educate Europe and the world of the evils of the Nazi ideology. Following the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands in 1940, rather than hiding he stepped up his journalistic campaign against the world-view of the Third Reich. While Brandsma wrote powerfully against the Nazi’s, he never turned to violence, nor did he call for it. In fact, he implored his brothers in Christ:

“Do not yield to hatred. We are here in a dark tunnel but we have to go on. At the end, an eternal light is shining for us.“

It didn’t take long for this to earn him the wrong kind of attention. In January of 1942 Titus agreed to a bold operation proposed by his superiors; he started hand delivering letters to the editors of Catholic newspapers ordering them to not publish official Nazi press releases. He patiently and convincingly persuaded them, saying:

We have reached our limit. We cannot serve them. It will be our duty to refuse Nazi propaganda if we wish to remain Catholic newspapers. Even if they threaten us with severe penalties, suspension or discontinuance of our newspapers, we cannot conform with their orders.

He had seen 14 editors and was on his way to the next when he was arrested by the Gestapo. He served short sentences in three prisons, being questioned in the first, and held trial in the second

Captain Hardegen of the Gestapo stated perfunctorily the German view of Titus, "Life in your cell cannot be too difficult for you since you are a monk." Despite the Captain’s revile for Brandsma’s faith, during one of his testimonies to the German court Titus wrote, “God bless the Netherlands. God bless Germany. May God grant that both nations will soon be standing side by side in full peace and harmony.” Hardegen responded by reporting to his superiors that "Brandsma feels he must protect Christianity against the National Socialists," that he was "very dangerous" and promised "We will not let him free before the end of the war." Even so, Titus urged his fellow prisoners to forgive their captors and to pray for them.

He was then sent on to Dachau where he would have even more experiences that would show his faith was bigger than his fear:

“Stay with me, Jesus, my delight, your presence near makes all things right.”

Upon his arrival at the concentration camp his calm and gentle nature infuriated the guard, inspiring them to beat him regularly and to leave him unconscious in the mud. Unsurprisingly his health declined and infections set in, and as such he was forced into the prisons medical experimentation program, a form of medical torture. When his health failed to the point he was no longer useful to the program the Allgemeine SS administered a lethal injection.

In all things, in the joy and success of his university days through the desperate and torturous months in prison, Titus Brandsma never lost hope and was always a wellspring of gentleness and joy. Every believer would do well to regard Titus’s advice for the Christian life:

“Place all your trust in the Lord. All will work out in the end.”