LONG SUFFERING FOR THE SALVATION OF SOULS

ST MAXIMILIAN KOLBE, PRIEST, MARTYR

Ezek 9:1-7,10:18-22; Ps 113:1-6; Mt 18:15-22

The Patience that wins our brothers to God

In the first reading from Ezekiel, the Lord showed the prophet the abomination of idolatry in the Temple of God in Jerusalem. While some Israelites were in exile in Babylon, the people left in Jerusalem turned to worship of creatures instead of Yahweh, God of Israel. The foul religious practices caused the glory of God to depart from the Temple. With the departure of the glory of God, a decree of destruction was passed on the city of Jerusalem and its people. But God remembered all those who were pained by the atrocities going on in the city and the Temple. God signed them with the cross, indicating they belonged to him, and they were not affected directly by the decree of destruction. But being people with good conscience, the decree of the destruction of the city and those enslaved in evil would affect them indirectly, for they would certainly mourn the city, and their brothers and sisters destroyed. It is never God's intention to kill his creatures, but the evil that we do attracts the forces of destruction which God permits in his infinite justice. “The glory of the God of Israel rose off the cherubs where it had been and went up to the threshold of the Temple. He called the man in white with a scribe’s ink horn in his belt and said, ‘Go all through the city and strike. Show neither pity nor mercy; old men, young men, virgins, children, women, kill and exterminate them all.”

The glory of God leaves us when we choose evil over good when we listen to, and practice lies instead of the truth of the word of God. By embracing lies and falsehood in our hearts, we beckon on forces of evil and darkness to dwell with us. God, who has made us with free will, permits us to have our way, he sends evil and darkness to us, by removing his glory from us. At such moments when people choose evil over good, the good suffer a lot of persecution, but their patience and perseverance win mercy and salvation for the people. Because of the hardship and evil that spread when people abandon God’s word, there is a tendency for many good people to forsake the practice of virtue. But our Lord teaches us never to give up doing good to our brothers and sisters. “If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone, between your two selves. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you: the evidence of two or three witnesses is required to sustain any charge. But if he refuses to listen to these, report it to the community.” In other words, Jesus wants us to be longsuffering with our brothers and never to give up on the course of their salvation or deliverance from the stranglehold of evil. Our refusal to reject or abandon them implies they will never be completely overcome by evil. Even when they fail to listen to the Church, we are to treat them as those who need our prayer for conversion.

Subsequently, he gave a heavenly power to the united prayer of the faithful and their endeavour for the conversion and salvation of our brothers and sisters. “I tell you solemnly once again, if two of you on earth agree to ask anything at all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three meet in my name, I shall be there with them.” This is a great power the Lord handed to us to wield for the salvation of others. Love is the key to wielding this power, for only love would make us persist in our neighbour’s salvation even when they refuse our advances. St. Maximilian Kolbe had such a power of love, for he loved our Lord and his Virgin Mother so much. He was a Polish Franciscan priest who believed Christians must save the world by spreading the Gospel through the various Mass Media. It was a time of crisis for the world, the Second World War was underway. He founded a newspaper, and sodality called the Knights of Mary Immaculate, which spread widely in Poland and abroad. He started a community called ‘City of Mary’ that published many periodicals. He carried out different apostolates for the salvation of souls in different countries. In 1941 he was arrested and sent to the concentration camp, where he helped and succoured the inmates. In August of that year, a prisoner escaped, and in reprisal, the authorities chose ten people to die by starvation. One of the men had a family, and Maximilian offered to take his place. The man was present at his canonization. He showed God’s love to people in crisis and brought many to Jesus Christ.

Let us pray: O God, who filled the Priest and Martyr St. Maximilian Kolbe with a burning love for the Immaculate Virgin Mary and with zeal for souls and love of neighbour, graciously grant, through his intercession, that, striving for your glory by eagerly serving others, we may be conformed, even until death, to your Son.