Jn.12: 20-33
After a day of hectic work, the prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp were lined up for their roll call. Immediately, guards smelled the danger of the absence of one of the prisoners. The gauds and well trained Nazi dog squad searched for the missing prisoner the entire camp, but they could not trace him anywhere in the camp. They concluded that this prisoner from block 14 had escaped the concentration camp. It was a severe blow to the pride of the Nazi regime; an ordinary, armless prisoner could fool the entire security system, and coolly, he could escape from the camp. They sent the prisoners back to the block. The next day the captain Karl Fritsch announced that he could not find the escaped prisoner. Therefore, others had to pay the penalty for his indiscipline. As a result, ten other prisoners from block 14 should die instead of the one escaped prisoner. Captain chose 10 prisoners for the execution. Mr Franciszek Gajowniczek, a Jewish sergeant in the Polish army, sobbed uncontrollably, wailing, “My poor wife! My poor children!”
At that crucial moment, the prisoner, #16670, stepped out of the line and walked towards Mr Fritsch. It was a brave move; all the machine guns aimed at him. When Fritsch demanded what this man wanted, he removed his hat and said: ‘I would like to die in the place of one of these men. Maximilian Kolbe, the 46-year-old Franciscan priest, convinced the Nazi commander that the Old Catholic priest would be a better choice than the young distraught husband and father. The ten prisoners were put in a bunker and starved to death for two weeks along with Kolbe. They were deprived of water and food. Kolbe strengthened his fellow prisoners through their prayers and gave them hope. At the end, when the guards checked the bunker, they realized that only Kolbe was left alive. In the end, they put him to death by injecting the poison. Thus, he died on 14th August… The hour of intense pain and suffering, he accepted it as a moment of glorifying God through his self-sacrifice. His readiness to die to oneself gave a new life for his fellow prisoner, and even today, his heroism inspires many to stand for the cause of the other.
One of the major themes that we come across in John’s gospel is ‘the hour of glory.’ John presents this hour as the long-awaited hour of Jesus. In various parts of the gospel, we see Jesus says: ‘My hour has not yet come, and in chapter 17, close to his passion, he says: ‘the hour has come.’ In chapter 17, we see Jesus says that he passes through this hour, not for himself but to glorify his Father. What is this hour all about? It is the moments of his own passion and death. We see in world history kings and leaders fought great battles and won the election etc., enjoying the glory of their success. However, the hour of glory for Jesus was contrary to the understanding of the world. It is the hour in which he is going to lose everything. He had to carry the burden of human sinfulness and shame of guilt. He had to undergo tremendous suffering and crucifixion that is meant for hardhearted criminals.
In the garden of Gethsemane, he struggles out of anxiety about the terrible suffering that he was about to undertake. However, he underwent these terrible moments willingly and glorified his Father. How this moment of surrendering became a moment of glory for Jesus? He became the grain of wheat died to himself to give life for others. Jesus glorified his Abba by forgetting oneself and sacrificing his life for the other. The crucifix is a reminder of the self-sacrificing love of Christ. “When I am lifted, I will draw all people to myself.” his most crucial and agonizing moment became a glorious moment because he was concerned for the other in his life. He glorified his Father by dying on the cross as an expiation for our sins and his unconditional love for each one of us.
All of us are called to glorify our heavenly Father; he knitted us in our mother’s womb and sustained every moment of our life. Normally, moments of suffering we consider as cursed moment, a moment of uncertainty and disbelief. Nevertheless, Christ showed us how these moments could be transformed as a moment to glorify God. The moments of suffering are not a problem in Christianity. It is a mystery. Jesus Sanctified, glorified and transformed these moments as a supreme moment of worship and honour to our heavenly Father. As we meditate on this passage, may we be touched by the attitude of Jesus towards suffering. Like Jesus, let us grow in this awareness that these difficult moments can be transformed as life-giving moments by our choice of accepting it as redemptive and consider it as an opportunity to Glorify our Heavenly Father. Like Jesus, let us die to ourselves, that we may become agents of new life and hope to our brethren who lost all their hope…