Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr

Lectionary: 413


"And now, Israel, what does the LORD, your God, ask of you but to fear the LORD, your God, and follow his ways exactly, to love and serve the LORD, your God, with all your heart and all your soul, to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD which I enjoin on you today for your own good?

Today the Church celebrates a twentieth century European martyr. Saint John Paul II changed the rules slightly when he declared Father Maximilian Kolbe a saint. Kolbe was not accused of loving the Lord Jesus, nor did his killers demand that he renounce his faith. Rather, Kolbe stepped forward and volunteered to die in another man's place.

When some prisoners escaped Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp in Poland, the commandant selected several men to die of thirst and starvation. This was his bizarre way of teaching the rest of the prisoners not to attempt escape. However, one man fell to his knees and pleaded with the commandant that he could not die; he had a wife and children who needed him.

The German officer, of course, couldn't be bothered with such a request until one fellow stepped forward and said, "I will take his place." Astonished and momentarily confused, the commandant demanded, "Who are you?"

The prisoner replied, "I am a priest." Those were the last recorded words of Saint Maximilian Kolbe; he died two weeks later on this day in 1941. When the guards found him still alive they injected his emaciated body with carbolic acid and he died immediately. Pope John Paul II, a fellow Pole, only a few years younger than the saint, declared Maximilian Kolbe a "martyr for love."

We must remember this story because the world has not changed in the past seventy-six years. Philosophically many people still believe in Darwinian "survival of the fittest," that the self-appointed "able" should not have to provide for the weak among us.

Dominant cultures throughout the world still identify certain people as pariahs and cruelly torment them. In the United States they are "illegal aliens," homosexuals, African-Americans, and so forth. When these powerful persons meet resistance, they consider themselves "victims" and resort to terrorism. It has a long history in the United States.

Many believe they can blame a certain few for systemic problems and rid themselves of these problems by liquidating the people. Demagogues do not hesitate to use this ingrained bias to promote their own careers.

Saint Maximilian was arrested because he was a Catholic priest, a man capable of persuading Catholics to resist the powerful German army in Poland. His ordination was sufficient reason for his imprisonment.

I often hear stories of equally irrational behavior among law enforcement agents in the United States. Did you know they can pull anyone off the highway at any time and confiscate their property on the "suspicion" that the goods may be stolen or ill-gotten? In many cases the stressed law enforcement agencies depend upon the cash to maintain their service because tax payers don't want to pay the cost of law enforcement.

Some people like to declare,"Freedom is not free!" but what do they mean by that? Are they calling for higher state and federal taxes? Are they willing to forego certain personal liberties for the sake of everyone's greater freedom? 

Perhaps, they really mean that certain arbitrarily-chosen pariahs should accept less freedom -- poverty, imprisonment, illiteracy, poor health and the occasional lynching -- for the sake of the majority.

Martyrs like Saint Maximilian Kolbe remind us that when the majority goes along to get along they turn a blind eye to manifest evil. Such a nation must soon descend into madness as the self-righteous -- the so called law-abiding citizens -- fail to act justly and courageously.

In today's first reading we have heard the Lord declare again,

For the LORD, your God, is the God of gods, the LORD of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who has no favorites, accepts no bribes; who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and befriends the alien, feeding and clothing him. So you too must befriend the alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.

We should expect no heavenly homeland if we fail to provide a safe place to everyone who seeks it.