Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr
What is the most awesome thing you have ever seen in your life? Realizing that it might be difficult to name just one thing or event, place one of the images in your mind’s eye. Now imagine yourself perceiving the beauty, however unable to enter into the experience. It could be very frustrating. Certainly, Moses would have had that feeling on seeing the Promised Land but being unable to enter it. Moses’ vision of this and subsequent death transpired to bring reconciliation to the Israelites for their indifference to their first attempt to enter the Promised Land.
Maximilian Kolbe, a priest from Poland was ordained at 24. The new priest saw that religious indifference was the deadliest poison of his day. Maximilian made combating this apathy his life’s mission. After being arrested and sent to Auschwitz, Maximilian saw in his mind’s eye an opportunity to be Christ. There, he secretly celebrated the sacraments. One day he offered his life in exchange for a man who had a wife and children. He died by lethal injection two weeks later on the eve of the Feast of the Assumption; even then he offered his arm for the needle. Maximilian’s actions stunned the commandant of the camp.
Maximilian’s example helps us recognize how Christ’s presence can bring reconciliation and healing to even the most difficult circumstances. Consider for what, or for whom we might exchange our own lives? Stories like these give me pause, “Could I be that courageous?” Perhaps, I would make the exchange if I could feast my eyes on the lasting reconciliation between all those I have wronged or anyone who has animosity towards me, maybe then the Kingdom of heaven would be visible.
Loving and merciful God, help us to see and understand Your will for our lives. Like Maximilian and Moses, fill our souls with zeal, so that our hearts and minds see through Your eyes the feast that You have prepared for us, both now and forever. Amen!
- Michael Montgomery
Ps. The man for whom Maximilian had exchanged his life was in attendance for Maximilian’s canonization in 1982.