Homily on the Memorial of St. Maximillian Kolbe, 14 Aug 2023, Catholic Safeguarding Institute, Ateneo
eroism – It is the act of laying down one’s life for the good of another. Our very own hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, did that for our country 125 yrs ago; and so did Senator Ninoy Aquino and the rest of our national heroes whose memorial we will celebrate on Aug 21 & Aug 30 respectively as National holidays.
In the Catholic Church, heroism is called by another term, martyrdom. A martyr is one who lays down his life not only in defense of his/her Catholic faith but, above all, for the love of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In fact the Greek term “martyr” originally refers to one who is a witness; one who gives a convincing testimony to the truth esp. to what he/she believes, even to the point of being put to death. So, you might be curious to ask, how many martyrs the Catholic Church already has throughout her long history of 2000 years. Two or twelve or more? Counting only the Filipino martyrs, we have so far only two, namely, Sts Lorenzo Ruiz and Pedro Calungsod. On the other hand if we count only the Popes who died as martyrs, we have twelve of them. However, if we use the liturgical calendar of the Church as our basis, then we would realize that the Church has already thousands of Catholic martyrs being venerated every year. In fact based on the “Martyrologium Romanum” of 2004, the number could reach up to 14,154 men, women and children who have died for their faith and have been officially recognized by the Church as Blesseds and Saints. And there could be even more.
Today we honor just one of them, namely, St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish priest and martyr, who was canonized by Pope St John Paul II in 1982. By the way, he is widely venerated today not only by us Catholics but also by the Anglicans and the Lutherans as well.
St. Maximillian was born in Poland in the year 1894. He professed the vows as a Franciscan Conventual in 1911, and in 1918 was ordained a priest. As a young seminarian he became so devoted to our Blessed Mother that he formed a Marian group of devotees called the Militia Immaculata. He even left Poland to become a missionary in Asia, first in China, then in Japan, and then also in India. And in order to spread more rapidly both the Good News of Jesus and the devotion to Mary, he daringly used the mass media, at first the printed media and then, later on, also the radio.
Above all St Maximillian came to be known as one who volunteered to die in place of a man condemned to death. This happened in Auschwitz during the Second World War. In 1941 he was arrested and imprisoned by the Nazi forces. Surprisingly, despite the depressing conditions inside the prison-cell he tried to remain calm and firm in his faith in all those terrible months. He even extended his priestly ministry among his prison-mates, and in the midst of hardships and hopelessness, he encouraged them to pray every day singing together various hymns to our Lord and to our Lady.
One day, however, one of the prisoners suddenly escaped from the camp. This unfortunately prompted the commander to pick ten men randomly among the remaining prisoners to be executed by being starved to death in the underground bunker. And among those selected was someone named Franciszek, a family man, who pleaded earnestly for his life, crying out “My wife! My children!” Without hesitation, Maximillian Kolbe stepped forward and, after securing the officer’s permission to speak, he volunteered to take his place. The officer immediately accepted Maximillian’s self-offering thus sparing Franciszek’s life. Isn’t that amazing? That heroic act of stepping forward made Maximilian Kolbe a true martyr of the Church because he eventually died not only for one man but for that man’s whole family. He believed in his heart how sacred that man’s family was including the children who urgently needed the support of their father. They were much more sacred than one’s life itself.
Like St Maximilian Kolbe we too are called and challenged to be martyrs for Christ and heroes for the suffering and the oppressed. Although not many of us might in the future have the honor of dying for our faith, nevertheless, all of us are presently called to be fully alive in Christ, living witnesses of our vibrant faith, particularly to promote life and to safeguard the weakest members of our society, esp. the poor, the sick, the children and the vulnerable adults. In this world afflicted and corrupted by the abusive power of the elite, let us pray that through the inspiration and intercession of Mary Immaculate and her devoted son, Maximilian Kolbe, we too may make that significant step forward to safeguard the weakest members of our Church & society from becoming victims of violence, armed conflict, abuse and exploitation of any sort. What we have done this morning in this workshop is already one big step forward that can make a world of difference.
May all of us grow in an environment of peace and have life to the full according to God’s plan. GiGsss!
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