Homilies We Hear

Remembering the life and death of St. Maximilian Kolbe

08/14/2024

John 15:12-16 Jesus said to his disciples: ""This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. 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.""

Some homilies we hear we never forget. They leave a deep and lasting impression on our souls, and inspire us to be saints. Other homilies we forget as soon as the priest stops preaching. Archbishop Peter Sartain remarked in his funeral homily for Cardinal Francis George that the cardinal gave a few remarks one Sunday at the end of Mass that were very memorable, while the archbishop’s homily that Sunday was very forgettable.

I heard one homily in 8th grade that I have never forgotten, and it continues to inspire me today, 41 years after I first heard it. I was sitting in a school Mass at St. Theresa’s in Little Rock and Fr. Thomas Keller was our pastor. During most school Mass homilies I was counting the lights in the ceiling of the church. But that day in 1983, Fr. Keller described in detail the martyrdom of St. Maximilian Kolbe, an obscure Franciscan priest in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

What caught my attention then – and has never left it – is that Kolbe volunteered to take the place of a married man who was going to be starved and then killed. The man had a wife and children, and St. Maximilian Kolbe saved his life so he could return to his family. Pope St. John Paul II had canonized St. Maximilian Kolbe in 1982, the year before Fr. Keller delivered that memorable homily. And the man who was saved by St. Maximilian was present at the canonization Mass.

I believe one reason Fr. Keller’s homily moved me so deeply was because he, like St. Maximillian Kolbe, had a passionate love for the Blessed Virgin Mary. Fr. Keller promoted a devotion to the “Two Hearts of Jesus and Mary.” St. Maximillian Kolbe promoted a devotion to the Immaculata, or the title of Mary as the Immaculate Conception. That is, both men were convinced that the fastest road to Jesus was through Mary. And conversely, the fastest way to spread the Kingdom of Christ was through the prayers and intercession of Mother Mary.

St. Maximillian Kolbe composed a prayer of consecration to the Immaculata, and I want to share it with you. Perhaps you might use it personally. Let me just recite the first half of the consecration: “O Immaculata, Queen of Heaven and earth, refuge of sinners and our most loving Mother. God had willed to entrust the entire order of mercy to you. I, (Fr. John), a repentant sinner, cast myself at your feet, humbly imploring you to take me with all that I am and have, wholly to yourself as your possession and property. Please make of me, all of my powers of soul and body, of my whole life, death and eternity, whatever most pleases you.”

And how providential that St. Maximillian Kolbe would die by lethal injection of carbolic acid (after being starved) on August 14th, the day before the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary into heaven! In other words, this humble devotee to the Blessed Virgin Mary would always be venerated the day before her own great feast. They are united not only in spiritual devotion, but also in liturgical celebrations. And that is the way St. Maximillian Kolbe would have wanted it. His life leading others to Mary because Mary's life leads the world to Jesus.

In the gospel today, Jesus unveils what makes his own Sacred Heart skip a beat, namely, love for his friends even to the point of death. Our Lord taught: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” And St. Maximillian Kolbe’s heart beat according to the same rhythm. Only when a homily awakens that kind of love in our hearts – not only to live for our friends, but even to die for them – does a homily become very memorable rather than very forgettable.

Praised be Jesus Christ!