When the Nazis overran Poland, Father Maximilian Kolbe transformed his friary into a covert refugee center. Before the SS troops discovered Kolbe’s plot, the men had hidden more than 2,000 Jews. The SS shipped Kolbe to Auschwitz, prisoner #16670. Though beaten, forced into hard labor, and given sparse food, Kolbe’s gentleness never waned.

After one prisoner escaped camp, Auschwitz’s commandant selected 10 others to be locked in a bunker and starved to death. When Franciszek Gajowniczek was chosen, he sobbed, “My wife! My children! What will they do?” Kolbe stepped forward and asked the commandant to allow him to take Gajowniczek’s place. In the bunker, Kolbe prayed, read psalms, and sang hymns with the men. After 2 weeks, he was the only prisoner still alive. Wanting to empty the bunker, a guard gave Kolbe a lethal injection of carbolic acid.

An Auschwitz survivor, Jerzy Bielecki, described Kolbe’s sacrificial death as “a shock filled with hope, bringing new life and strength. . . . It was like a powerful shaft of light in the darkness of the camp.”

Maximilian Kolbe would likely be the first to say that whatever light he offered was merely a reflection of the radiance of God. The collected stories of Kolbe’s life make it clear that he didn’t view himself as a hero, but as one who longed to bear witness to the love and light of God in Jesus Christ. Like the prophet Isaiah, Kolbe’s life proclaimed this message: “For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine” (Isaiah 9:2). This light was the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

In Jesus, God shatters the dark and hopeless places of our world. Indeed, a powerful shaft of light has come!

NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: John 6:41-71