Everything Could Be a Prayer: Maximillian Kolbe

From Everything Could Be a Prayer by Kreg Yingst

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

-John 15:13

The loud screeching of the train brakes carrying the condemned into Auschwitz gave way to the orders of the commander. The prisoners, clad in thin, torn, striped uniforms, fell quickly in line. The commander was going to call out ten men by number to be starved to death as retribution after three inmates were assumed to have escaped.

One of the prisoners was a Polish man named Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan priest arrested for harboring Jews. During the war, the friary acted as a makeshift hospital, print shop, radio station, and homeless shelter. It was not unusual to see Kolbe give away his small rations to someone in need, always trusting in God's providence.

But this day would demand of him a far greater sacrifice. One of the prisoners chosen, Franciszek Gajowniczek, burst into tears upon hearing his number called. His hopes of ever seeing his wife and two young children again vanished.

At that moment, Kolbe did the unthinkable. He stepped forward to offer his life in exchange for Gajowniczek's. Surprisingly, his request was granted. Two weeks passed, with the prisoners locked in a room with no food. When the jailer came to remove the dead bodies, he discovered Kolbe, praying in the corner and consoling three others who were still alive. They all were administered a deadly shot of carbolic acid.

Gajowniczek survived Auschwitz. "I could only thank him with my eyes," he laments later. "I was stunned and could hardly grasp what was going on. The immensity of it: I, the condemned, am to live and someone else willingly and voluntarily offers his life for me- a stranger. Is this some dream?” 

"A single act of love makes the soul return to life," Kolbe says. A single act of sacrificial love changes everything for those who bear witness to this love.

Prayer
Man of Sorrows, Sacrificing Shepherd, you who lay down your life for the sheep; with gratitude and praise, I thank you with all my heart, with all my life, and with all my spirit for giving fully of yourself, and for showing us what real love is! Amen.