Homily, 8-14-23; Memorial of St. Maximillian Kolbe:
Today we used the optional readings for the memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe because they fit in so well with the heroic act with which he received the crown of martyrdom. Maximillian is a modern day saint. He was arrested by the gestapo in 1941 on charges of aiding Jews and the Polish underground and eventually ended up in Auschwitz. After a fellow prisoner escaped, ten other prisoners were selected at random to set an example. They were to be placed in the starvation bunker with no food or water to slowly die. Maximillian volunteered to take the place of one of those prisoners who was married with young children. While in the bunker, he led the other nine in prayer and song. After two weeks, only Maximillian was still living and they gave him an injection of carbolic acid to finally end his life. Hid dying words were simply “Ave Maria”. He was cremated on the next day, August 15th, the feast of the Assumption.
Maximillian lived what Jesus taught us in today’s gospel passage: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Pope Paul VI referred to him as a “martyr of love”. He is well known for his heroic death at the age of 47, but there is much more to his relatively short life that we can learn from.
There is another portion of Jesus’ words in our gospel passage that almost seems prophetic for Maximillian’s life. Jesus said: “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.” At the age of twelve, Maximillian received a special calling through a vision of the Blessed Mother. Our Lady offered him a choice of two crowns: a white crown symbolizing purity, or a red crown symbolizing martyrdom. He responded by choosing both. Prior to his ordination, Maximillian consecrated himself to our Blessed Mother, the Immaculate, and founded the Knights of the Immaculate, or also called the Militia Immaculata. It was thirty years ago, after our conversion, that Jenni and I made our consecration to the Blessed Mother following Maximillian’s formula. It is a consecration that I renew each morning with a short prayer before I get out of bed.
Maximillian revolutionized evangelization through the use of mass media tools of magazines and newspapers. At its peak, he published 600,000 copies per issue of the Knights Immaculate magazine and his daily paper had a circulation of one million. God chose him and appointed him to go and bear fruit that will remain. And Maximillian obeyed.
Today we celebrate and honor a great saint and martyr; one who died less than a hundred years ago. We can learn much from his life that can influence our own lives. We can remember that we did not choose God, but that He chose us and has appointed us, like Maximillian, to go bear fruit that will remain. We are called to evangelize and spread the good news using all the modern communication methods available to us. And of course we are called to be martyrs of love. This does not necessarily mean that we are called to suffer physical martyrdom, although we should accept that possibility. But it does mean that we should be willing to make sacrifices out of charity to help our brothers and sisters in our community and around the world.
We are living in difficult times. In 1979, St. John Paul II proclaimed Maximillian as “Patron Saint of our Difficult Age.” Let us pray for his intercession and guidance. St. Maximillian Kolbe, pray for us. Immaculate Mary, pray for us.