August 14 2024 - St. Maximilian Kolbe - The antidote to poisonous indifference

 Last week, on August 9 we celebrated the martyr Saint Theresa Benedicta of the Cross, a jewish convert to Catholicism and Carmelite nun who was killed in the Nazi Concentration Camp in Aushwitz in 1942.  A year earlier, the Franciscan priest Maximilian Kolbe, was also martyred at Auschwitz.

Today’s Saint died a heroic death in a Nazi concentration camp in 1941.  

Born in Poland in 1894, Maximilian Kolbe entered the Conventual Franciscans at the age of 16.  Ordained at 24, Fr. Kolbe saw religious indifference as the deadliest poison of the day. No doubt, Fr. Kolbe saw the inhumanity rampant in the war, inhumanity that led to those death camps, the inhumanity rampant throughout the 20th century, as a result of that indifference.

Our ultimate meaning, our ultimate purpose, is found in our relationship with God. And when we are indifferent toward God, our already damaged moral compass suffers even more. Without God, there is nothing to stop greed, lust, and pride from becoming the primary motivators of our lives. Indifference toward God is poisonous. And our society has largely succumbed to this terrible poison. 

To combat the growing religious indifference in early 20th century Poland, Fr. Kolbe founded the Militia of the Immaculata, whose aim was to fight evil with the witness of the Catholic life, prayer, work, penance, and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Fr. Kolbe started a religious magazine under Mary’s patronage, Knight of the Immaculata magazine, to help spread the message of the Faith. 

Fr. Kolbe knew that the Blessed Virgin Mary is not only the antithesis of religious indifference, but also the antidote to it. 

Mary ‘s active, engaged faith, her intentional contemplation of God, her attentiveness to the needs of others, her nearness to Jesus at the cross, and to the apostles at pentecost, sharply contrasts with the indifference of our day. Her example inspires us move beyond coldness and antipathy toward God, to full, active pursuit of the one thing that matters.  Mary's "yes" to God,  stands in stark contrast to modern attitudes of self-centeredness which breed innumerable evils.

Mary's "fiat"  in response to the Annunciation demonstrates complete openness and submission to God's will. Throughout her life, Mary actively participates in God's plan, from the Visitation to her presence at the foot of the Cross. The Gospels describe Mary as "pondering the things of God in her heart," suggesting deep reflection on spiritual matters - the opposite of indifference. 

It was Mary’s faith, hope, and charity, that led Fr. Kolbe to lay down his life for another in the concentration camp, love that is praised by the Lord himself, when he says, there is no greater love, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friend.

Like him, May faith, hope, and love animate our lives, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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For the Church, that like St. Maximilian Kolbe, we may combat religious indifference with active faith, fervent prayer, and devoted service to others. 

For world leaders, that they may recognize the inherent dignity of every human life and work for a society of lasting peace. 

For all Catholics, that inspired by Mary's "fiat," we may respond with wholehearted "yes" to God's will in our lives.

For those experiencing persecution for the faith, those who suffer illness, extreme poverty, addiction, and those near death, may they find hope and peace in the example of the saints.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased priests and religious, and for those who laid down their lives for our safety and freedom. 

Almighty Father, hear our prayers, and grant us the grace to serve you, as so many faithful saints through the centuries. Through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin grant us what we truly need to be your devoted servants always and everywhere. Through Christ our Lord.

August 14 2019 - St. Maximilan Kolbe, martyr - The most deadly poison of our time is indifference

Last Friday, on August 9, we celebrated the martyr Saint Theresa Benedicta of the Cross, a jewish convert to Catholicism and Carmelite nun who was killed in the Nazi Concentration Camp in Aushwitz in 1942.

In 1941, today’s Saint too died a heroic death in Auschwitz.

Prior to his arrest, Fr. Kolbe, a Franciscan Friar, hid nearly 2,000 Jews and Poles, in his Polish monastery. But, in 1939 he was arrested by the Nazis and without trial or sentence, Fr. Kolbe was transported to Auschwitz. Yet, the Lord had work for him even in that desolate place; there he heard confessions and celebrated Mass using smuggled bread and wine.

One day, several prisoners managed to escape.  As punishment, 10 men from his block were selected to die.  When a married Jewish man with a family was among them, Fr. Kolbe asked to take his place.  The stunned Nazi officer agreed to the exchange.  Fr. Kolbe and the other nine men were stripped, locked in a cell, and left to starve to death.  After two weeks, some, including Fr. Kolbe were still alive.  They were given lethal injections of carbolic acid, and their remains were thrown into an oven.

Father Kolbe’s death was not a sudden, last-minute act of heroism. The holiness, the service, the love and care of souls, led him to the willingness to sacrifice his life, for the good of a stranger.

Saint Maximillian once said, "The most deadly poison of our time is indifference.” Indifference toward God and the dignity of human life led to the massacre of millions in Fr. Kolbe’s day, and in our own it has led the draconian abortion laws in our country and around the world, it leads to mass shootings and lack of sympathy to the plight of the poor, the immigrant, the lonely.

Kolbe spoke of Christian love as the remedy for indifference. Love, he said, is a “creative force.” Look at what Christian love has done throughout the centuries: the invention of hospitals, orphanages, universities, the most magnificent art, music and architecture in human history, and the conversion of gravely hardened heart.

Let’s pray today for the conversion of hearts from indifference to love, and through Saint Maximilian Kolbe’s prayer and example may we too be made into instruments of peace for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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That all members of the Church, laity and clergy, will be committed to self-sacrificial service in their daily lives.

For an end to indifference to God and human dignity in our government institutions, universities, businesses, and personal attitudes.

That the young students of our school beginning classes next week, may know the love of Christ in their families, that each school family may seek to practice right religion to the honor of God.

That the love of Christ, the divine physician, may bring healing to the sick and comfort to all the suffering.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased priests and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom. We pray.

O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

October 16 2018 - St. Margaret Mary - Circumcision of Hearts

In ancient Israel, circumcision was a sign of one’s membership in the community. The uncircumcised was seen as less of a man, who had not fulfilled the prescriptions of the law proscribed by God, and therefore unreceptive of the blessing of God.

Israel, however, would be tempted to consider circumcision sufficient to gain a share in the blessings of God. This led Jeremiah the prophet would go so far as to say that physical circumcision had no value in itself, what mattered was the circumcision of the heart. If the greatest command in the Law was to love God with your whole heart and to love your neighbor as yourselves, to circumcise the heart meant to remove all obstacles, all hardness, which kept one from the love which was to characterize God’s people.

St. Paul develops the teaching of the prophets in our first reading today, when he says, “neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” What makes one an heir to the kingdom of heaven, is not circumcision, but faith in Jesus Christ which strips the heart of all selfishness, which seeks to imitate Christ’s outpouring of love in his self-sacrifice to the Father. To be a Christian is to seek to make one’s heart like the heart of Christ.
In 1677, Our Blessed Lord appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a Visitation nun in France and revealed his Sacred Heart.

She said, “I could plainly see His heart, pierced and bleeding, yet there were flames, too, coming from it and a crown of thorns around it. He told me to behold His heart which so loved humanity.”

The Lord lamented to St. Margaret Mary that he found so few souls on earth who truly loved him. So many lukewarm hearts, so many slothful hearts, so many divided hearts, so many ungrateful hearts, so many hearts indifferent to his sacrifice, hearts that could not care less that the Son of God became man and suffered and died for them. The Lord particularly lamented the irreverence and coldness of his people for the Eucharist, the sacrament of his love.

“Behold this Heart,” the Lord said to Margaret Mary, “which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming itself, in order to testify its love. In return, I receive from the greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrileges, and by the coldness and contempt they have for me in this sacrament of love....”

In order to circumcise our hearts, to strip our hearts of indifference, ingratitude, lukewarmness, and irreverence for the Eucharist, we do well to ponder and behold, like St. Margaret Mary, the Lord’s Sacred Heart, to contemplate his love for us and his suffering for us, to repent of our sins and to engage in the prayer and fasting and penances and works of charity that will enkindle the fire of love for God, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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In reparation to the Sacred Heart for all sin and blasphemy, ingratitude and indifference, we pray to the Lord.
For an increase in faith, hope, and love for all Christians, for a renewed reverence for the Holy Eucharist, we pray to the Lord.
That our children and young people may be kept safe from the poisonous errors of our culture, and that their families may be places where the faith is practiced and cherished.
For all those whose love for God has grown cold, who have fallen into moral laxity or despair of the mercy of God, for all souls in danger of hell, for their conversion and the conversion of all hearts.
For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, victims of natural disaster, war, and terrorism, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.
For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for the deceased clergy and religious of the diocese of Cleveland, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.
Holy Father, hear our prayers, and enkindle in our hearts the fire of your love, circumcise our hearts to make them evermore like the Sacred Heart of Your Son, who is our Lord forever and ever.