Oct
16

Words teach, but personal example shows their meaning… People want to observe Christians who have taken a stand in the contemporary world, Christians who live amid all of the darkness with clarity, insight, and conviction.

Home > Living the Gospel > Words teach, but personal example shows their meaning… People want to observe Christians who have taken a stand in the contemporary world, Christians who live amid all of the darkness with clarity, insight, and conviction.
These were the sobering and challenging words of Blessed Franz Jägerstätter who had a vivid dream in 1938 of a shining train circling a mountain. He saw men, women, and children rushing to get a place on it and suddenly he heard a voice that warned: “This train is going to hell.” Frantz lived in a tiny Austrian village during the time of Nazism and as he pondered the terrible dream he had had, he came to see the train as symbolizing Hitler’s Nazism. On March 11, 1938, Franz’s dream became real as Adolf Hitler’s troops crossed the border and annexed Austria. A month later, Austrians went to the polls and approved the takeover virtually unanimously. In his small village, Franz was the only one to vote NO. He was deeply grieved by the failure of this fellow Catholic’s including most of Austria’s clergy to heed earlier warnings from prophetic voices to reject the Reich’s racial delusions. Franz refused money he could have received through a Nazi program that assisted families and in 1940 he even accepted military service rather than ask party officials for an exemption. He emerged from that service even more horrified at the evils of Nazism including its policy of euthanasia for people with disabilities. While carrying out his duties as husband and bread-winner for his wife and three daughters, this ordinary man began thinking deeply about obedience to legitimate authority and obedience to God, about mortal life and eternal life, and about Jesus’ suffering and Passion. He became convinced that participation in the war was a serious sin and decided that any future call-up had to be met with his refusal to fight. With the loving support of his wife, Franziska, he placed his complete trust in God, knowing that his decision would mean certain death. Her sacrifice united the couple deeply.

Again and again, Franz warned his fellow Austrians not to compromise with evil, and in February 1943 when he was called up again for military service, he presented himself at the induction center and announced his refusal to fight, offering to carry out non-violent services: this was denied him. On August 9th, before being executed, Franz wrote: “Neither prison nor chains nor sentence of death can rob a man of the Faith and his free will. People worry about the obligations of conscience as they concern my wife and children. But, I cannot believe that; just because one has a wife and children, a man is free to offend God.” Franz Jägerstätter, who would not bow his head to Hitler, bowed his head to God, and the guillotine. He was obviously called up to serve a higher order. On October 26, 2007, Franziska, then 94, had the joy of witnessing a glorious ending to her husband’s story. For on that day, Pope Benedict XVI beatified her beloved husband.

As we ponder the legacy of Blessed Franz Jägerstätter, let us remember that we are the hands, the heart and the voice of our God to be used for the good of this world. Let us pray for the courage to stand up and be counted; to stand against the evils of economic disparity, racial injustice, abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, morally dubious war, and stockpiling of nuclear weapons.

Our Catholic Catechism states: The citizen is obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order, to the fundamental rights of persons or the teachings of the Gospel. Refusing obedience to civil authorities, when their demands are contrary to those of an upright conscience, finds its justification in the distinction between serving God and serving the political community. “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”

Sylvia Bates