WITNESSING GOD'S GREATNESS

SAINT MAXIMILIAN KOLBE, PRIEST, MARTYR

Josh 3:7-11,13-17; Ps 114:1-6; Mt 18:21-19:1

Grasping the Greatness of Our God

The readings lead us to contemplate the greatness of God, who made us and called us to a communion with him. The greatness of God is beyond our understanding, for to understand it is to understand the essence of God. He alone is being; everything shares in his being by his holy will. Hence, everything exists at the will of God and ceases to be at his will. By bringing things into existence, he makes them share in his greatness. The being of everything and its operations show forth the greatness of God. Faith gradually introduces us to the knowledge of God's greatness and also enables us to share in the greatness of God in a unique way. Joshua, whom God called to lead the people of Israel into the Promised Land, was no stranger to the greatness of God as an adjutant to Moses. Moses, by believing the word of God, shared his greatness and demonstrated it before the people, in Egypt and in the wilderness. Yahweh himself declares his intention to share his greatness with Joshua. “The Lord said to Joshua, ‘This very day I will begin to make you a great man in the eyes of all Israel, to let them be sure that I am going to be with you even as I was with Moses.” Our faith in the word of God makes him dwell with us, for he dwells in his word. Moses’ greatness is a testimony of his faithfulness in the service of God’s will for his people.

The divine will is to bring his people to the land he promised them and their ancestors. Joshua would share the greatness of God if he aligned himself with God as he reveals his will. He receives instructions from the Lord and relates them faithfully to the people. “Then Joshua said to the Israelites, ‘Come closer and hear the words of the Lord your God.’” In obedience to the word of God, Joshua, the priests, and the people became the extension of God’s presence and will. The Palmist sings of this mystery: “When Israel came forth from Egypt, Jacob’s sons from an alien people, Judah became the Lord’s temple, Israel became his kingdom. The sea fled at the sight: the Jordan turned back on its course; the mountains leapt like rams and the hills like yearling sheep.” The faithful exercise the greatness of God also through the power of the key that Jesus gave to the faithful. He gave the disciples the power to bind and loose, in accordance with divine will. We always bear in mind that God acts in and through us when we believe; we do not act alone. Therefore, faith is a necessary condition for our exercise of God’s power and greatness.

Peter’s question to Jesus Christ illuminates this point. “Peter went up to Jesus and said, ‘Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times? Jesus answered, ‘Not seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven times.” In other words, we are never to act without the inspiration of God. The decision to forgive or not to forgive does not belong to us, but to God who dwells within us by our faith. The parable of our Lord clarified the lesson more. The servant owed everything to the master and received pardon from the master’s generosity. He was bound to act accordingly, following the inspiration from the action of his master. His decision to act independently of his master’s will and action landed him in perpetual prison.

We celebrate Saint Maximilian Kolbe for following the inspiration from our Lord’s self-sacrifice for our salvation. He was born on the 8th of January 1894 in Poland. He joined the Franciscans in Lwow in 1910 and was ordained eight years later. He desired to use all the means of communication to preach the Gospel of Christ. He founded a newspaper and a sodality of the Knights of Mary Immaculate for this purpose. He started a community called ‘City of Mary’ in 1927 at Teresin, which was centred around the Franciscan friary. The community published many periodicals and ran a radio station. He travelled to Japan in 1930 to study Buddhism and Shintoism, as a means to spread the Gospel. The ‘Garden of the Immaculate’ he set up in Nagasaki survived the atomic bomb. He was arrested in Germany in 1941 and sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz, where he helped and succoured the inmates. He offered to take the place of a prisoner condemned to die, so that he could go back to his family. The man was present at his canonisation. Saint Maximilian exercised the greatness of God following the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Let us pray: O God, who filled the Priest and Martyr Saint 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. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever.