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John 15: 12-16
Jesus said to his disciples:
“”This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing.
I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.
It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you
and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain,
so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.””
The Gospel of the Lord.
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There’s an old Swedish proverb, “Those who wish to sing always find a song.”
In good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, those who wish to sing always find a song.
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Today we celebrate the Feast of Saint Maximillian Kolbe, priest and martyr. Maximillian was one of millions of prisoners sent to Auschwitz, the most infamous death camp of World War Two, perhaps the worst in history.
One day while working in the camp, another prisoner tried escaping. Furious over the attempt, the camp guards selected ten other men to be put to death in his place.
One of the men selected pleaded for mercy, telling the guards that he was a father and a husband. Then Saint Maximillian stepped forward and said, “I am a Catholic priest. Let me take his place.”
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Maximillian and the other nine men were thrown into a hole, condemned to death by starvation. Heroically, Maximillian led those men in prayer and song for nearly two weeks.
Survivors from Auschwitz later recounted how the prisoners’ singing could be heard rising out of the ground at all hours of the night, making it sound like a church choir buried in the depths of hell. The hope was contagious.
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What might Maximillian’s life say to us today?
No matter where we find ourselves – in good times or in bad, in sickness or in health, on a mountaintop or in the belly of the earth – we all have a reason to sing a song.
Jesus has been raised from the dead, and because of him, so will Saint Maximillian, his companions, and all who place their hope in God.
Saint Maximillian Kolbe, pray for us!
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Image credits: (1) Vatican News (2) More Info, Auschwitz (3) Amazon.com