Easter Thoughts of a Martyr
Alois Andritzki, priest from Meissen, will be declared a Saint on Pentecost. While in a Concentration Camp of Dachau, he wrote an article for Easter. by Marcus Knaup
Freiburg (kath.net) "In the evening of the Sabbath, Mary Magdalena hurried with her friend to the tomb, in order to see it. Alleluia.' It is right away at this time. Shortly before we will hear the wondrous Easter songs from the Schola. I have heard it already and was very pleased; so that the Alleluia really leaps in an Easterly heart and all of the coming days after won't be sad."
These lines came from the feather of Alois Andritzki (1914-1943). He wrote it on Easter Day in Dachau. Andritzki was a young, Sorbian priest from the Diocese of Meissen, who had preached against the madness of Nazism and finally was euthanized in the Concentration Camp Dachau. His aches were interned in the main Church of Dresden. In the coming Pentecost, Andritzki will be declared a Saint in Dresden.
These cited lines make it clear that Alois Andritzki took part in the Passion of Jesus, who also took on his Easter Lord's wounds and showed his youth always as a sign of recognition. In his hands which were bored through, he held every suffering. And it caused Andritzki much suffering. Because: the pain held for him the diminishing of human concern and status: "The meditation of Sunday Compline is the correct expression for my soul's constitution: deepest sorrow and for that reason it then tinkles, yes I rejoice in the spirit of praise for our Lord and God. Suffering purges and saves the man of all errors and weaknesses, and God has made it so it happens to me! (Letter of 16. März 1941).
The direction to the resurrected Christ gave Andtritzki strength and confidence. In a letter from 16. April 1941, he wrote: "Eastern is both within me and outside of me. The risen Christ has found me, has brought me his greeting of peace. [...] For that reason I stop, even here in this poverty, to make an affirmative Hallelujah to sing from a joyful heart." This noteworthy statement shows that this one had participated in the resurrection, who trusted in Christ and believed in him. This textual statement can serve as a modern Easter experience. As in the New Testament's Easter story -- i.e. in the Emmaus story -- Andritzki appeared in thoroughly difficult situations of his incarceration to have the experience, suddenly of entering the presence of God Jesus Christ. AS the youth of Emmaus suddenly saw "with other eyes". his heart "burned". Easter experiences not are only in the New Testmant, rather also, there where Christ is living in His Church.
Holiness is certainly not a private religious holy accomplishment. Whoever gives himself deeply to Jesus, who lives in him, can become Holy. "Holiness consists in, to be like Christ, and translate his ways, his thoughts and deeds into our lives", said Pope Benedict XVI. The Easter witness and new Saint Alois Andritzki is an enlightening example of that.
link to kath.net...
1 comment:
Thank you for this article. Fr. Andritzki was a *Sorbian,* not a Serbian. The Serbs are almost all Eastern Orthodox (sic). The Sorbs are a Slavic minority living in Germany, many of whom are Catholic.
~Bonifacius
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