Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe
Today is the feast day of St. Maximillian Kolbe, whom Saint Pope John Paul II named the “patron saint of our difficult century”. St. Maximillian Kolbe, a Franciscan friar, volunteered to die in place of a stranger in a Nazi concentration camp. He chose to put his life and his needs last, to allow another, a complete stranger, the chance at life.
I think the biggest difficulty of our century is our selfishness. We often lose sight of how our actions, thoughts and words affect others. Our first and primary priority is ourselves and making sure that we have the best of everything. I myself am guilty of this as well. St. Maximillian Kolbe did the opposite. He saw a person in need, a stranger, and he chose to sacrifice his life, his chance to survive, for this person to live. His needs were the least of his concerns. Loving and caring for others was his main focus.
We see this same theme of self-centeredness play out in the Gospel reading today when we hear of the servant who feels his grievances and debts should be forgiven yet those who owe him should be beaten and jailed. How many times have we been hurt and allowed it to take over our lives? We become so wrapped up in the emotion and the pain of feeling hurt and offended that we lose sight of the ways that we have hurt and offended others. We become so wrapped up in who owes us an apology or recompense that we neglect the fact that we have hurt others who have forgiven us, accepted us, and moved on. Forgiveness is hard to do. Forgiveness requires us to step outside of ourselves, step out of our selfish hurt and pain and to embrace another – to put someone else’s needs before our own. How many times are we forgiven but we refuse to forgive others?
We also hear about the need to turn from selfishness in the first reading. Ezekiel writes of the Prince who will come in complete humility. He will be as an exile who moves at night, so as to not to be seen or noticed. Rather than stand in the middle of the room telling everyone how great he is, the Prince of Peace, Jesus, will come as someone who hopes to go unrecognized and unnoticed.
In three different examples – Jesus, the servant in the Gospel parable and St. Maximillian Kolbe – we see that we are called to put others first and to suppress our selfish desires and impulses. We are called to forgive, to sacrifice and to be humble. St. Maximillian Kolbe pray for us!
- Amanda Grimm