Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)
Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)
Gospel John 19:11-18 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)
Jesus said:
“I am the good
shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a
shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the
sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand
and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my
own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father;
and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this
fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So
there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves
me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it
down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have
authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
When St John Paul II canonised St Maximilian Kolbe OFMConv on 10 October 1982 he cited Janusz Korczak, a Jewish writer and teacher, who went to his death with a group of orphans in his charge although he had been offered the chance to be spared. He was also a paediatrician.
There were similarities between the sacrifice of of Fr Kolbe and Dr Korczak, both Polish. Fr Kolbe offered his life in exchange for that of Franciszek Gajowniczek, a young Polish soldier interned in Auschwitz who was to be executed with nine others chosen at random because three of their companions had escaped. The Franciscan friar heard the young soldier cry 'My wife and my children'. His offer was accepted and he and the other nine were put in a cell and left without food or water. After two weeks the Franciscan priest was the only one still alive and was given a lethal injection on 14 August 1941.
Almost a year later Janusz Korczak was to die
in Treblinka extermination camp along with nearly 200 Jewish orphans who had
been living in the orphanage that he had set up in Warsaw in 1911-12. However,
when the Nazis took over Warsaw they forced the orphanage to move to the Ghetto
that they created in a district of the Polish capital in late 1940.
German soldiers came on 5 or 6 August 1942 to collect the orphans and about 12
staff members to take them to Treblinka. Dr Korczak had already turned down
offers of sanctuary for himself before this and turned down an offer at this
point.
A witness described the scene: Janusz Korczak was marching, his
head bent forward, holding the hand of a child, without a hat, a leather belt
around his waist, and wearing high boots. A few nurses were followed by two
hundred children, dressed in clean and meticulously cared for clothes, as they
were being carried to the altar.
At the point of departure for Treblinka an SS officer recognised Dr Korczak as
the author of a book that was a favourite of his children and offered him a
means of escape. Once again this remarkable man turned down this offer and went
with the children to the camp where their lives were soon to end in the gas
chambers.
Janusz Korczak could not save the lives of the children under his
care but he made sure that they left the orphanage with dignity, wearing their
best clothes and each bringing an item that was special to him or her. He chose
not to leave them but to die with them.
St Maximilan Kolbe chose to give his life for someone he did not know because
that man had a family and he hadn't.
Greater love has
no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends
(John 15:13).
Surrexit
Pastor Bonus
Setting by Orlando di Lasso
Sung by Vox AngelorumChoir, MBK, Jakarta
At St Paul’s Within theWalls, Rome
Antiphona
ad communionem
Communion Antiphon
Surrexit Pastor Bonus,
The Good Shepherd has risen,
qui animam suam posuit pro ovibus
suis,
who laid down his life for his sheep
et pro grege suo mori dignatus est,
alleluia.
Extraordinary Form of the Mass
Traditional Latin Mass (TLM)
Third Sunday after Easter
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 4-25-2021 if necessary).
Epistle: 1 Peter 2:11-19. Gospel: John 16:16-22.
Authentic Beauty
Authentic beauty, however, unlocks the yearning of the human heart, the profound desire to know, to love, to go towards the Other, to reach for the Beyond.
Pope Benedict XVI meeting with artists in the Sistine Chapel, 21 November 2009.
The words ‘B’YomHaShoah yikatevun’ in the song mean ‘On Holocaust Day it is Written’.
In memory of Dr Janusz Korczak, the twelve nurses from his orphanage and the nearly 200 orphans murdered in Treblinka for the sole reason that, like Jesus, Mary and Joseph, they were Jewish.
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