My dear loved ones, the hour draws ever nearer when I shall give my soul back to God, the Lord. I could say many words of farewell to you, and it is hard to imagine saying no more good-byes to you.
I would have gladly spared you the pain and the suffering that you have borne on account of me. But you surely know that we must love God more than we love our family, and that we must be ready to let go of everything that we love on this earth and that is dear to us rather than to offend God in the least. And I would not dare to offend God on account of you. We know what suffering God could have sent you on account of me!
It was surely hard for our dear Savior to give his dear mother pain because of his death. And what are our sufferings in relation to those which those two innocent hearts suffered for us sinners? Moreover, what must a farewell [at death] be for those people who do not fully believe in eternal life and who, therefore, do not have much hope for a reunion? If I could not have trusted in God’s mercy and forgiveness for all of my sins, then I would have hardly had peaceful days during my solitary time in prison.
Although people have accused me of criminal behavior and condemned me to death, be consoled knowing that in God’s eyes not everything is criminal that the world perceives to be criminal. I hope that I do not have to be afraid of the eternal Judge because of this [so-called] criminal behavior.
My death sentence should be a warning for you. God, the Lord, will not treat us much differently if we perhaps think that we do not need to obey everything which he commands us to believe and follow through His Church. However, if we do not follow God’s commandments, the eternal Judge will condemn us not merely to an earthly death but to an eternal death.
Therefore, I have nothing more urgent to set before you than that you resolve to keep all of the Commandments and to avoid every sin. You should love God, our Lord, and also your neighbors as yourself (cf. Mk. 12:28-34). On these two Commandments rest the entire law. Keep these, and then we have reason to hope for an imminent reunion in heaven.
One must not think poorly of others who act differently than I have. It is much better for everyone to pray than to pass judgment on others. God intends that everyone should become holy.
Many people simply believe that things must be as they are, that they should do what is unjust, and that others have responsibility for this situation. They also hold that whoever has the mind and the will should be able and willing to obey all regulations. For them, to take the military oath is not to lie. However, someone else may say beforehand: “If I cannot uphold and obey everything that I promise in this oath, then I commit a lie.” I am of the mind that it is best that I tell the truth, even if it costs me my life: I cannot obey the oath in all of its aspects. [*According to the defense attorney Feldmann the Reich’s Military Tribunal might have reconsidered the death sentence of FJ if he would have taken the military oath. But FJ told his wife Franziska Jägerstätter and Pastor Fürthaer on July 13 that since he would be lying if he were to take the oath, he would not take it.]
Neither God nor the Church gives a commandment requiring that we must—under the burden of sin—commit ourselves in an oath to obey human authorities in all matters. So do not have a heavy heart when others declare that I am a sinner. You can have peace of mind if you take my love of my family as evidence concerning me. For it is because of my family that I am not permitted to lie, not even if I had ten children. My greatest request is the one that I have already conveyed to you: raise the children to be devout Catholics as much as it is possible for you. They do not yet have a great understanding of Catholicism.
Out of my own experience I can say that life is painful when one lives as a lukewarm Christian. To exist in this way is to have more the existence of a vegetable than truly to live. If a person were to possess all of this world’s wisdom and be able to claim half of the earth as his own, he could and would still be less fortunate than a poor person who can claim nothing in this world as his own other than a deep Catholic faith. I would not exchange my small, dirty cell for a king’s palace if I was required to give up even a small part of my faith. All that is earthly—no matter how much, nor how beautiful—comes to an end. But God’s Word is eternal.
I can assure you that if you—in the state of grace—would merely pray with reverence the Our Father for the children, you would give them a greater gift than if you could give them the greatest wedding gift that a millionaire could give his daughter. Many people would laugh at these words. But they are true.
Now my dear children, when your mother reads you this letter, your father will already be dead. I would have gladly come to you, but the heavenly Father wanted it otherwise. Be well-behaved and obedient children. Pray for your father so that we shall see each other soon in heaven!
My dear wife and my mother, forgive me for all the ways in which I have offended you and have made you suffer. I surely forgive you. And I ask that everyone in Radegund, whom I have made suffer and have offended, forgive me.
Also, give my greetings to Hilda [referring to his daughter Hildegard Auer].
*Franz Jägerstätter wrote this reflection in red crayon on an unfolded piece of stiff paper of the kind used for “a letter-card.”
**Excerpted from Franz Jägerstätter: Letters and Writings from Prison
edited by Erna Putz, translated with commentary by Robert a. Krieg (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2009), 235-237. Available for purchase from Eighth Day Books.
