Memorial of Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe

Today's Mass Readings

In today’s gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus likens God the Father to a merciful king, who forgives the debt of one of his servants. Upon forgiving the debt, the king would expect that servant to show the same kind of mercy to anyone indebted to him. The failure to do so is understandably upsetting to the king. The parable recalls a line from the gospel of Luke 6:36: “Be merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful.” In other words, we are all sinners and hence owe a debt to God. God forgives that debt through Jesus, but our faith does not end there; rather, the knowledge that God has been merciful to us ought to spur us into action, being merciful to others. In the first reading from the prophet Ezekiel, Ezekiel acts out the burden of exile that the people Israel will have to endure. His dramatic portrayal is an ominous foretelling of the misery they will all have to endure. This is only a snippet of the story of God’s chosen people. The rest of the story is that God continues to be with them and with us all, particularly when God comes to us in the Incarnation of Jesus the Christ. Again, it is through Jesus that God forgives our sins – the sins of all of his people individually as well as the sins of entire groups.

The saint whose feast we celebrate today is a model of God’s mercy to others. St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe is a relatively recent saint, one who was canonized by John Paul II. The circumstances of his death manifest the mercy that characterized his life. While in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz, Poland ten men were chosen to die. Kolbe was not initially among them, but he offered to take the place of a young man who was a husband and father. In so doing, Kolbe had to endure two weeks of starvation, neglect and thirst before his death. It was his mercy for this young stranger that led Kolbe to sacrifice his own life under such circumstances.

Of course, this is a dramatic example of showing mercy to our fellow human beings. On the other hand, we are all called to be like Maximilian Kolbe inasmuch as we are called to be merciful. We may not be in the dramatic circumstances that he faced, but we still have numerous opportunities throughout our day to serve others, to forgive others, and to be merciful to others. Today, try to think of one area in your life where you need to forgive or be merciful to someone. Pray that God may enable you to be merciful, as he is merciful.

- Maria Morrow