Discuss the meaning of discipleship with reference to present day Christian belief and life.

Authors Avatar

G.C.S.E. Course work

St. Luke and Discipleship

B. Discuss the meaning of discipleship with reference to present day Christian belief and life.

   I have already previously defined the meaning of a disciple. So we know a disciple is a follower of someone. There are two different disciples, one is a follower of someone religious such as Jesus and the other is a follower of someone with an inspiring talent like a singer. I have also described biblical examples of Jesus’ call to his first disciples. From this we learnt about the importance of trust and priority (that the Lord is the most important of all things).

   Now I am going to be looking and analysing modern day disciples. I will also be looking at their understanding of the Christianity and the way they interpret it. I will be trying to individualise the part of them that makes them special.

   First I will start with a modern disciple known as Maximilian Kolbe.

   It was in 1941 that three prisoners escaped a Nazi concentration camp known as Auschwitz. In reprisal the Nazi’s picked 10 men that were to be executed. They were to be executed by starvation in an underground bunker. There was one man amongst the ten known as Franciszek Gajowniczek that started to cry out about his family once realising his execution was to take place. However to his fortune and to many peoples surprise one of the watching inmates stepped forward. It was prisoner 16670 that stepped out to offer his life in the place of the other man. Prisoner 16670 and the other nine condemned men was then taken to the underground bunker and left to die a painful death as they were left without any food nor any water. Prisoner 16670 was a Polish Catholic priest known as Maximilian Kolbe. He was 47 years old. Before the war he was the founder of one of the largest monasteries in the world. Its name was Niepokalanow. The monastery was dedicated to Virgin Mary. Maximilian Kolbe had travelled as a missionary to countries in the Far East as well as Russia. In 1930 he also tried to help start a monastery in the town of Nagasaki, Japan. It was in 1939 that he started helping the Jewish refugees. It was in 1941 that the Nazi’s arrested him and sent him to jail in Warsaw and then he was deported to Auschwitz. Auschwitz was a horrible place, where people were treated like animals. People were continuously killed from beatings, floggings, torture, disease, starvation and in gas chambers. In a prison of such misery it was Father Kolbe that dedicated his life on helping the prisoners. He done this by sharing food with them and leading them with will, as well as this he organised secret church services. He tried to guide them through this catastrophe that had given many people a lot of depression. He was their hope. He was trying to set an example that God loved him and everyone even in such a place. Father Kolbe once said that every man had his own aim in life. For most of the people it was to return home to their family. His was to give his life for the good of people. Father Kolbe had a very extreme experience. He was a hero to the people of that camp as well as the hero to many surrounding concentration camps. He won their hearts and souls. It was later that a Polish Bishop wrote that the death and life of father Kolbe was proof of the fact that God’s love can overcome hatred, injustice and even death. It was then in 1982 that Pope John Paul 11 who was also a Pole declared that Maximilian was a saint.

Join now!

   Father Maximilian was a great example of a modern day disciple. He was a man that would have had first hand experience of great depressive events. The destruction of innocent peoples lives. He was special because he gave the people hope. Hope that they were able to make it and that if they didn’t they had God. He guided them through the bad times and gave them someone to look up to. In the worst of condition he gave church services to keep the spirit. He gave them another alternative and that alternative was God. Eventually he gave ...

This is a preview of the whole essay