Last week, we heard about the first episode of the story of St Maximilian Kolbe, a priest from Poland, who was an outstanding promoter of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary through the modern media of writing, radio and television.
Last week’s episode ended at the point when Father Maximilian and four companions were taken to the Nazi death-camp Auschwitz, and how they were ill-treated.
Now, in order to discourage escapes from prison, Auschwitz had a rule that if a man escaped, ten men would be killed in retaliation. In July 1941 a man from Kolbe's bunker escaped. The dreadful irony of the story is that the escaped prisoner was later found drowned in a camp latrine. But the remaining men of the bunker were led out.
'The fugitive has not been found!' the commandant screamed. 'You will all pay for this. Ten of you will be locked in the starvation bunker without food or water until you die.' The prisoners trembled in terror.
The ten were selected, including Franciszek Gajowniczek. He couldn't help a cry of anguish. 'My poor wife!' he sobbed. 'My poor children! What will they do?' When he uttered this cry of dismay, Maximilian stepped silently forward, took off his cap, and stood before the commandant and said, 'I am a Catholic priest. Let me take his place.”
Astounded, the icy-faced Nazi commandant asked, “What does this Polish pig want?”
Father Max pointed with his hand to the condemned Franciszek and repeated “I would like to take his place. I am alone in the world. But that man has a family to live for.”
The commandant remained silent for a moment and granted the request.
Gajowniczek later recalled:
“For a long time I felt remorse when I thought of Maximilian. By allowing myself to be saved, I had signed his death warrant. But now, on reflection, I understood that a man like him could not have done otherwise. Perhaps he thought that as a priest his place was beside the condemned men to help them keep hope. In fact he was with them to the last. It was the first and the last time that such an incident happened in the whole history of Auschwitz.”
Father Kolbe was left to starve in Building 13 along with the other victims. Hunger and thirst soon gnawed at the men. Some drank their own urine, others licked moisture on the dank walls. Maximilian Kolbe encouraged the others with prayers, psalms, and meditations on the Passion of Christ. While they moaned, Fr Maximilian comforted them in these words, “These Nazis may hurt our bodies, but they cannot kill our souls. When we die, we shall die pure and peaceful, resigned to God in our hearts.”
After two weeks, only four were alive. The cell was needed for more victims, and the camp executioner came in and injected a lethal dose of cabolic acid into the arm of each of the four dying men. While dying, Fr Maximilian kept praying the ‘Hail Mary…”
The heroism of Father Kolbe went echoing through Auschwitz. In that desert of hatred he had sown love. A survivor Jerzy Bielecki declared that Father Kolbe's death was 'a shock filled with hope, bringing new life and strength ... It was like a powerful shaft of light in the darkness of the camp.'
Fr. Maximilian Kolbe was beatified as Confessor by Paul VI in 1970, and canonized as Martyr by Pope John Paul II on October 10, 1982.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, if you agree with me that the life of St Maximilian helped you see the person of Christ in a priest, then there is more to the ordained priestly ministry that you should encounter. Come to our Novena of Grace in honour of St Francis Xavier where the theme is an echo of Year for Priests. Come, let us be further infused with God's grace as we encounter Christ in His priests.
Amen.
References:
[1] MAXIMILLIAN KOLBE, APOSTLE OF MARY by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. (http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/KOLBE.htm)
[2] Kolbe, The Saint from Auschwitz (www.auschwitz.dk/kolbe.htm)
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