Prisoner 16770 wilfully stepped forward to stand in for one of 10 who had been chosen to die of starvation in reprisal for an escape from the dreaded death camp of Auschwitz. At that point, Raymond Kolbe, who became Maximilian when he joined the Franciscans in 1910, conquered evil and demonstrated that resurrection always follows death.
Throughout these four days – Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday – all of us, believers or not and irrespective of the religion we may practise, have the opportunity to think more profoundly about the sorrow and pain, the injustices and the violence of whatever type that surround us. But we cannot stop there. The Passion of Our Lord has a happy ending: the triumph over evil, even if for His followers at the time everything must have appeared to be falling apart. Is that not also the experience of so many of us?
The charismatic Pope Francis spoke about evil in his Palm Sunday Mass homily: “Let us look around: how many wounds are inflicted upon humanity by evil! Wars, violence, economic conflicts that hit the weakest, greed for money that you can’t take with you and have to leave... Love of power, corruption, divisions, crimes against human life and against creation!”
Then, the Argentinian Pontiff continued: “Jesus on the Cross feels the whole weight of the evil and, with the force of God’s love, He conquers it, He defeats it with His resurrection.”
Those who, just days earlier had welcomed Him enthusiastically in Jerusalem, opted to free hardened criminal Barabbas rather than Him and vociferously called for His crucifixion. Yet, hanging on the cross and dying, He asked God the Father to “forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing”.
Such was the pain He was in that he felt all alone and, almost desperately, shouted: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
Each of us face such situations at some point in our lives, some even for extended periods of time whether because of an illness, family feuds or unemployment.
Evil, pain and turmoil seem just too formidable to stand up to. Because we are weak, we are often tempted to give in. At times, we tragically argue that if we cannot beat what we know is bad we might as well do the same.
We experience injustices being excused, wrongdoing being rewarded, bad elements appearing to prevail. This happens in so many spheres of life: in society, politics, the economy, even in the Church itself.
We often encounter problems that appear to be insurmountable, a wrong that can never be righted, an evil that seems impossible to defeat. In such circumstances, we tend to despair and prefer to look the other way or worse.
The episodes we are commemorating throughout these days, however, should not only teach us a lesson but give us the boost we need to realise that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the everyday story of each of us.
A man who had done no wrong was condemned to die on the cross. The good was being punished and the bad glorified. Greed and pride were being rewarded and evil triumphed.
It was only after He died on the cross that centurion Abenadar, standing close by, struck his breast and cried out: “Indeed, this Man was the Son of God.”
Do we have to wait for ‘death’ to arrive before we pluck up courage, wake up and face reality?
We too have the strength to rise from the ‘dead’. Good does prevail.