The Stubstitution

During World War II, Father Maximilian Kolbe, was a Catholic priest and a prisoner at Auschwitz. On August 14, 1941 a prisoner escaped from the camp. The rule was that if any person escaped, ten prisoners would be killed. All the prisoners were brought out. The commandant screamed, “The fugitive has not been found! You will all pay for this. Ten of you will be locked in the starvation bunker without food or water until you die.”

As you can imagine, the prisoners were terrified. The ten were selected, including a prisoner named Franciszek Gajowniczek. He cried out in anguish, “My poor wife! My poor children! What will they do?” When he uttered this cry of dismay, Father Kolbe stepped forward and stood before the commandant and said, “I am a Catholic priest. Let me take his place. I am old. He has a wife and children.” Gajowniczek was returned to the ranks, and the priest took his place.

The Nazis kept Kolbe in the starvation bunker for two weeks and then put him to death by lethal injection. Gajowniczek survived the prison. He died on March 13, 1995 in Poland at the age of 95. That was 53 years after Father Kolbe had saved him. But he never forgot that priest. Every year on August 14 he went back to Auschwitz. He spent the next five decades paying homage to Father Kolbe, honoring the man who died on his behalf. In October of 1982, Franciszek Gajowniczek, his wife, children, and grandchildren gathered with 150,000 others in St. Peter’s Square in Rome to celebrate Father Kolbe’s victory over hatred at Auschwitz.

On the cross Jesus became our substitute. A divine exchange occurred. Jesus took our place and died the death that we deserved.