Today we celebrate the feast of a great Franciscan martyr: Maximilian Kolbe – who gave his own life so that another could be spared death in a Nazi concentration camp.
In the gospel passage we are reminded how Jesus tells us that there is no greater love than one person can have for another, than to lay down their life for them. This is the kind of love that Jesus had for us: this is how he loves us and expects us to love one another.
It is not always easy to love another person, especially when there is not even much to like about them. But our experience of loving the least of the brothers and sisters shows us more clearly what Jesus did when he willingly suffered and died for us – WHEN WE WERE STILL THE ENEMIES OF HIS FATHER – we were still unredeemed children of Adam.
Because Jesus loved us to death (a death which was followed by a glorious resurrection), so too we can love others – even to death, because this love participates in the same resurrection.
Maximilian Kolbe rests certainly now in the hands of God – as the first reading relates – and no torment shall touch him, because he is in peace – God's peace – which came as a result of being tested in his faith, and passing the test.
May we, this day, accept the tests that God sends us for our good – and, with the help of St. Maximilian may we pass them as well – strengthened and nourished by the food of the Eucharist and the help of the Holy Spirit.
Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones.
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