Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, martyr
(Deuteronomy 10:12-22; Matthew 17:22-27)
St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Franciscan friar working in
Poland until he was arrested by the Gestapo.
Committed to Auschwitz, Kolbe saw an opportunity to show his love for
God when another prisoner was being sent to death for a crime that he did not
commit. Because the man had a family,
Kolbe offered himself as a substitute.
Pope St. John Paul II considered this act a genuine witness to the faith
and canonized Maximillian Kolbe as a martyr.
In today’s first reading Moses exhorts the people to likewise give
witness to their love of God. He does
not ask them to die for God but to live for him.
The Israelites are about to enter the Promised Land. They have every reason to hope that they and
their children will have all the resources they will need to live in prosperity. But Moses, conveying the will of God, wants
more than that for them. Because he wants them to fulfill their destiny of modeling
God’s justice, he exhorts them to remember God’s graciousness. He is especially concerned that they treat
other peoples fairly by reminding them, “…you were once aliens yourselves in
the land of Egypt.”
Because immigration has become a reality throughout the
world, we should underscore these words of Moses. Different customs, food, and language make sojourning
in a foreign land difficult. Immigrants
need understanding and compassion. Such
treatment shows solidarity not just across social boundaries but across
generational ones as well.
