Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest, Martyr
Wednesday of week 19 in Ordinary Time
Gospel – John 15:12-16
Today we are celebrating the Feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a great missionary from Poland, in Japan. In 1941 he was arrested and sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz, where he helped and succoured the inmates. In August of that year a prisoner escaped, and in reprisal the authorities were choosing ten people to die by starvation. One of the men had a family, and Maximilian Kolbe offered to take his place. The offer was accepted, and he spent his last days comforting his fellow prisoners. The man he saved was present at his canonization. He literally did what Jesus said, “A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends”. Jesus did that for us. He died for us. And He asks us to do the same. “I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last”. To bear fruit we must love like Him. St. Kolbe did that. We can also do that when we are ready to volunteer to take up the suffering of others with little kind deeds to big sacrifices. Giving up your comfort to give comfort for the other. This must be natural to us. Then it will not be only for those who know. But it will be to anyone. You care for the comfort of anyone. Let’s reflect: Am I ready to give up my comforts to give comfort for the other?
Don Giorgio