“Blessed be God who filled my soul with
fire!” Wow, what a proclamation we hear
in today’s responsorial psalm! And it
describes so well St Maximilian Kolbe. I
reflect a lot about St Maximilian in my homily for the Assumption of Mary,
which we celebrate tomorrow, but I also wanted to reflect a little more on him
today. He is a very popular saint,
having been popularized by Pope John Paul II, since they both come from the
country of Poland. Kolbe was very
precocious and energetic as a child. He
went off with the Franciscans since it was his only chance for any sort of
formal education. Even when it came time
to decide to become a friar, Kolbe still desired to join the military in hopes
of freeing his native Poland from their occupation by other European
powers. However, he knew that God was
calling him to be a priest, and that is what he eventually decided.
Kolbe died a martyr’s death. He died as a prisoner in the Auschwitz
concentration camp, having chosen to receive the punishment of death in place
of a man who had been chosen who had a wife and a family. That man was present the day Kolbe was
canonized a saint in Rome by John Paul II.
The energy and fire that fueled Kolbe’s faith in founding monasteries in
Poland and in Japan, in starting a popular publishing house and magazine, in
promoting our consecration and entrustment to Mary led Kolbe to accept a
martyr’s death in WWII.
The stories of the saints are not just
these idealized and glossy tales of super-humans that catch our
imagination. The saints give us
encouragement on our own journeys of faith in a very real, earthy way. As I mentioned in the homily for the
Assumption, Kolbe is the patron saint of those dealing with addictions to drugs
and alcohol. He is patron saint of those
who are imprisoned and locked behind bars.
In a very real way, St Maximilian Kolbe reaches out to us in his
compassion, in his humanity, in his strengths and in his weaknesses. He encourages us to endure in the midst of
our struggles and our dreams.
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