The Holy Spirit put St. Maximilian Kolbe on my heart as I prayed with the wonderful readings the Church has given us to ponder this Palm Sunday. I recently received a beautiful statue of him from my friends David and Molly. The statue now greets me from the garden each time I come and go from the rectory. Right now there are spring flowers blooming all around him. This is very appropriate, because St. Maximilian was a man whose life bore great fruit for the Kingdom of God.
St. Maximilian was a Fransican brother in Poland who devoted himself tirelessly to Jesus through the intercession of Mary, or “The Immaculata,” as he was fond of calling her. St. Maximilian had a great zeal for winning many souls for Christ through Mary’s intercession. He was a pioneer in evangelizing using the modern methods of communication of his time: he started a newspaper and a radio station to help spread the life-changing truth of Jesus and His Church throughout Poland and beyond. He even spent six years establishing a Fransican Mission in Japan after being inspired to go there by a providential meeting with some Japanese students on a train. His life was dedicated to others: both those he ministered to and also his fellow Franscian brothers. A biography of his life is entitled, A Man for Others. I highly recommend it.
Amidst all of his great work for Jesus, Mary and the Church, St. Maximillian rose in the ranks of the Fransican order to become the superior of the Fransican friary he founded in Poland, in charge of hundreds of other brothers in the mid 1930s. It was during this time that he faced the threat of the encroaching Nazi blitzkrieg into his beloved home country. The Nazis came through, arresting and deporting priests and religious brothers and sisters as they went. However, when St. Maximilian was faced with this approaching threat, he was confident and at peace. As one of his fellow Fransicans described it:
Father Kolbe, like a loving father, had for some time been preparing us for those trying days. On August 28, he spoke to us on the three stages of life: first stage, the preparation for activity; the second, activity itself; third, suffering. He said:
“The third stage of life, the one of suffering, I think will be my lot shortly. But by whom, where, how, and in what form this suffering will come is still unknown. However, I’d like to suffer and die in a knightly manner, even to the shedding of the last drop of my blood in order to hasten the day of gaining the whole world for God through the Immaculate Mother. I wish the same for you as for myself. What nobler thing can I wish you, my dear sons? If I knew something better, I’d wish it for you, but I don’t. According to St. John, Christ Himself said, ‘Greater love than this no one has, than to lay down his life for his friends.’”
Shortly thereafter, St. Maximilian Kolbe and most of his fellow brothers were arrested, deported and eventually ended up in concentration camps. St. Maximilian ended his life’s journey in Auschwitz, where he bravely gave up his own life in exchange for another condemned prisoner whom he didn’t even know. This was a man whose heart was fixed on Heaven and formed by Jesus and His Blessed Mother.
When I think of Fr. Maximilian essentially staring down the Nazi army with his heart fixed on Heaven, I can’t help but be inspired. Listen again to those words of supernatural hope and confidence that Fr. Kolbe shared with his brothers right before they were arrested: “The third stage of life, the one of suffering, I think will be my lot shortly. But by whom, where, how, and in what form this suffering will come is still unknown. However, I’d like to suffer and die in a knightly manner, even to the shedding of the last drop of my blood in order to hasten the day of gaining the whole world for God through the Immaculate Mother.”
“I’d like to die in a knightly manner.” Those words ring in my heart and mind as we meditate today on the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem and His subsequent Passion and death. Maximillian had set his sights so firmly on Heaven by God’s grace that he yearned to die in service of God in an honorable fashion, and so he did.
Think of the Lord as He neared the gates of Jerusalem being greeted by the jubilant shouts of: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.” True words, but ones which would be fulfilled not in a glorious worldly victory, but in a seeming bloody defeat. Jesus knew what was coming as He entered the gates of the holy city of Jerusalem. He had already set His sights on Jerusalem. Many chapters before this triumphant entry into Jerusalem, we hear from Luke that Jesus “resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem.” This is Luke’s way of saying that Jesus has firmly decided to follow the will of the Father; to offer Himself freely for you and me and the whole world, giving every last drop of his blood. It was His determination that fired the hearts of saints like Maximillian, and can fire our own hearts as well.
As we heard today from the prophet Isaiah:
I gave my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
my face I did not shield
from buffets and spitting.
The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
Our Blessed Lord perfectly fulfilled this determination that Isaiah expressed. He set His face like flint, knowing that the Father and the Spirit were with Him to support Him in His great mission of salvation for all of us.
He invites us to draw even closer to His heart as we set out on this solemn and holy journey of Holy Week. These precious days are an opportunity to let Him set our faces like flint to endure whatever sufferings may come our way as we go through this life. This supernatural courage can grow and become firm in us by the work of the Holy Spirit within us and our continual cooperation with Him. We who are baptized have His fiery presence within us to help firm up our hearts and strengthen us for the work that God calls us to and the suffering that He providentially allows. Through our worthy reception of the Holy Eucharist, our embrace of Jesus’ mercy in Confession, our experience of His strength through community with our brothers and sisters in Christ both here on earth and in Heaven, and through seeking Him in daily prayer, we can be strengthened to follow our blessed Lord more closely. There is much work to be done and suffering to be endured, but it is possible for us, the more we let ourselves be consumed by the love of Christ, as St. Maximilian and so many others before us have.
This week, let’s open ourselves all the more to the call of Christ to join Him in setting our faces like flint as we set our hearts on the joy He won for us through His Passion, Death and Resurrection. Let’s allow these days of prayer, fasting, worship, adoration and joy to instill in us a more burning love for the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the Heavenly Homeland which the Father opened for us through Jesus’ perfect love for us on the Cross.
+ Jesus, thank you for the perfect love you poured out for us to pay the price we couldn’t for our sins and to win for us the joy of Heaven. Enflame our hearts with love for you and the desire to join you in the joys of Heaven. Father, thank you for strengthening your Son to set His face like flint and endure the Cross for our sake. Holy Spirit, open our hearts more and more to the burning love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus this week and always. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen. +