A Note From Rob ...
Week of March 22
Maximilian Kolbe said, "I want to die in place of this prisoner."
The gates of the Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau have come to symbolize an age of
genocide. The destruction of five million Jewish lives between 1941-45 stands as a testament to our inclination to
destroy each other in hate and fear. Maximilian Kolbe, who died as prisoner 16770 in Auschwitz-Birkenau, is
remembered in the Christian church. He offered his own life to save a fellow prisoner, Franciszek
Gajowniczek, who was condemned to death by the camp authorities after a successful escape by a fellow prisoner.
Father Kolbe gave his bread to prisoners starving with him in a small cell with dirt floors. He heard
confessions and even secretly shared the Eucharist, Holy Communion, with prisoners until his death. The quote
above was his request to die in another’s place. Because he was not a Jew, he could have been released but gave
his life to be with those who faced death at the hands of Nazi Germany.
I share this story in preparation for our Gospel lesson this week. Please read John 3:14-21. May I suggest
you read it daily? Devour it like a hungry captive. Digest it like the last meal of a condemned prisoner. Then savor
it like one feasting on the finest meal ever offered.
Maybe we might even get in touch with our own mortality. While we are far removed from the
concentration camps of Nazi Germany; we are those who are mortal. We may not be starving to death because we
have little bread but our lives will end with the same reality. We who have so much may be starving from
abundance. Could it be we might have our bellies and lives full of that which does not satisfy or sustain life?
If so, maybe the sacrifice of the One who gave us the bread of life might fill us in such a manner that we
might not hunger for that which bloats but does not satisfy. Maybe we might sing “Bread of heaven, bread of
Heaven, feed me ‘till I want no more. Feed me ‘till I want no more.”
Perhaps we might all imagine how it would be to be locked up in a dirty cell in Auschwitz without a
name, just a number. Not a person, just a statistic, a number. One day that number would come up if death by
starvation did not claim life first. Then someone offers bread to sustain life. Imagine One would ask to die when
your number came up.
For God so loved the world…For God so loved each of us.
RETURN
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