Today is the feast day of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, who was a Franciscan priest that lived during the turbulent times of the two World Wars. He is perhaps best known for laying down his life so another may live.
In February 1941, the monastery Saint Maximilian Kolbe lived in was shut down by the German authorities. He and four others were arrested.
In May, he was transferred to the Auschwitz concentration camp. As a priest, he was subject to extreme harassment, beatings, and lashings.
In July, a person escaped from the prison. This prompted the guards to select ten men to be made an example of in order to discourage future attempts. One of the ten men selected cried out, “My wife! My children!”. Upon hearing this, Saint Maximilian Kolbe volunteered to take his place.
After being deprived of food and water for two weeks, Saint Maximilian Kolbe died of a lethal injection of carbonic acid on August 14th.
The man Saint Maximilian Kolbe laid down his life for would survive Auschwitz and would return home to his family. He would die in March, 1995. In 1994, he said that “so long as he ... has breath in his lungs, he would consider it his duty to tell people about the heroic act of love by Maximilian Kolbe”.
Imagine the humility Saint Maximilian Kolbe must have had in order to be able to lay down his life in such a way that he would face certain death.
In his monthly challenge, Archbishop Lori said, “In the life of a disciple of Christ, we are called to develop the virtue of humility. We are called to self-giving service to others, not self-serving advancement of ourselves. Let us strive to not seek worldly honors in an egotistical spirit, but rather to live as servants to others so that God may exalt us to eternal life.”
Saint Maximilian Kolbe gives us a model for how to live this out. Fortunately, we will not likely be called to be a martyr as he was, but we are still called to walk with our Lord humbly and lay down our lives for others out of love, developing a sense of spiritual martyrdom.
So, we ask ourselves: What does the struggle with the sin of pride look like in your life? How can you be more humble of heart while at the same time bold in living and proclaiming your faith? What living examples of humble service have you found in your own life? How have you laid down your life for someone else? How do you think God is calling you to lay down your life now?
Saint Maximilian Kolbe is a reminder of the invitation to abandon our comfort zone.
Saint Maximilian Kolbe is a reminder of the invitation to abandon our self absorption and pride.
Saint Maximilian Kolbe is a reminder of the invitation of Pope Francis in his encyclical “Evangelii Gaudium”...the invitation to become “bruised, hurting and dirty because (you have) been out on the streets”....out on the street finding the victims of the culture of death and walking with them into the culture of life and into the sacramental life of the Catholic Church.
Thanks be to God!
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