Surrounded by scores of Poles, the German Pope was pensively silent.  An anguished expression revealed his inner grief.   People around the world watched on television and wondered what Pope Benedict’s thoughts could be in this place of wanton wickedness.   Gently, the rain fell on the Vicar of Jesus Christ on Earth as he stood in the horrific hell of Auschwitz!
    Somberly, the Pope began to speak:  “In a place of horror like this words fail; in the end there can only be dread silence  - - - a silence which is itself a heartfelt cry to God.  Why, Lord, did you remain silent?  How could you permit this endless slaughter, this triumph of evil?”  Why?  Why?  Tortured by sin and its effects, mankind has asked this same question since Cain shed the innocent blood of his brother Abel.  
    Pope Benedict then spoke movingly of remembrance and reconciliation, resistance to evil and the triumph of love.   It would be wrong, he said, for us to presume to be the judges of God and history.  As the Holy Father has insisted repeatedly, “Deus caritas est!”  “God is Love!”
    Evil cannot emanate from God who is all-good.  God draws good from evil.  From the wickedness of Auschwitz-Birkenau, God drew the incalculable good of Saint Edith Stein.  A cloistered Carmelite nun, she was known as Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.   As a Christian and a Jew, Saint Edith Stein willingly endured a fearsome death with her people and for them.  God alone knows the many fruits that will flow from the Calvary of her sufferings.
    From the evil of Auschwitz-Birkenau, God drew the inspiring example of the holy and dedicated Priest, Father Maximilian Kolbe.  For from this “Valley of Darkness,” there shone the brilliant light of his faith.   
    The Church flourishes from Priests who inspire us to live holy lives.  Father Kolbe was such a Priest.  Filled with devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, he had a Christ-like zeal for souls.  In imitation of Our Savior, this heroic Franciscan Priest would lay down his life for his sheep on July 31, 1941 at the infamous Nazi concentration camp.
    One day a prisoner escaped.  Terror swept over the other inmates; they knew the consequences of such escapes.   Their fears were realized when the ruthless commandant ordered that ten men were to die in retaliation.  Randomly, the unfortunate ones were chosen.  One of the condemned men broke down and began to cry:  "Oh, my poor wife, my poor children.  I shall never see them again.”  The Nazis were without mercy or pity.
    Suddenly one of the prisoners not selected for execution broke ranks.   Standing at attention with hat in had he said to the Nazi officer: "I will take his place."  The commandant stood in amazement.   "Who are you?" he asked.   The prisoner answered: "I am a Priest."   It was Father Kolbe!  
    Notice that Father did not say I am Maximilian Kolbe.  He did not even say I am Father Kolbe.   Rather: "I am a Priest!"  Like Saint Paul, our good Priest had immersed himself totally in Jesus Christ.  It was no longer he who lived, but Christ lived in him.  Well did he understand the words of Our Divine Savior: "Greater love than this no man has than to lay down his life for his friend."
    Filled with scorn and contempt, the Nazi officer accepted his seemingly senseless offer.  He would show this fool Priest a thing or two.  They took dear Father Kolbe and nailed him to the cross of the starvation bunker.  Like a wounded animal, he was left there to die.
    Stripped of his clothes and without food or water, he spent his every remaining moment ministering to his condemned confreres.  Father urged them to trust in God.  He taught them to pray to his beloved Immaculata, the Virgin Mother of God.  The dying Priest heard their confessions, calmed their fears and blessed them with hands crusted in filth.  But, they were the hands of a Priest.  From those holy hands flowed the infinite blessings of the Triune God. 
    In imitation of Jesus, Father Kolbe laid down his life for his friend, a man he had never known.  After two weeks of barbaric inhumanity, amidst the corpses of the dead, Father was given a lethal injection of carbolic acid.   The Priest who lived like a saint, died like a saint. To the very end, Father Maximilian Kolbe was an Alter Christus, Another Christ!
    What a model for Priests!  Like Father Kolbe, a Priest’s life cannot be his own.  This is precisely the reason that celibacy is a demand of the Priesthood. The Priest must live no longer for himself but for Christ and His people.  Few are called to give the witness that Father Kolbe gave.  Yet, every Priest is called to be an Alter Christus who lives and dies for the salvation and sanctification of the souls of his flock.
    "Every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God, to offer sacrifices for sins.  He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring, for he himself is beset by weaknesses, and so for this reason, he must make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people.  No one takes this honor upon himself but only when called by God" (Hebrews 5: 1-4). 
    Reflecting on Father Kolbe’s sacrificial death, let us pray for our Bishops and Priests.  So often, we Priests fail.  We need your prayers for we are called to imitate Jesus Christ; the Eternal High Priest Who laid down His life on the Cross of Calvary.  
    May Mary, the Immaculata, grant us the courage to follow the heroic example of Saint Maximilian Kolbe!    Father Kolbe!  Pray for us!

                    Father Richard J. Rego, S.T.L.