St. Maximilian Kolbe & Bl. Franz Jägerstätter stored up treasure in heaven!

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C


At first glance, our readings this Sunday are rather forbidding: “All things are vanity!” says Qoheleth; We are like grass, “which at dawn springs up anew, but by evening wilts and fades,” says the psalm; “You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?” says God to the rich man in the Gospel parable; “Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly,” says St. Paul to us in the 2nd reading. This is heavy sledding, and it seems to present a forbidding and negative perspective on this world.

Let me tell you about two men who acted on this powerful call from Christ to store up treasure in heaven. On September 1st, 1939, the Nazi army massively invaded Poland and devastated the Polish army and the Polish nation. Very quickly the Gestapo began to round up any potential leaders of resistance. Fr. Maximilian Kolbe, a Conventual Franciscan, was running the largest religious house in the world, an active publishing apostolate, and even a radio station. Very quickly he and some of his friars were picked up and put in prison. After some months of mistreatment and intimidation they were released. They went right back to publishing and evangelizing, so in February of 1941 they imprisoned him again, this time he was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. In late July that summer, a prisoner escaped from his barracks, and in retaliation the Nazis selected 10 prisoners at random to be starved to death. All the prisoners were standing at attention, and the men were singled out. One of them, Polish Sergeant Francis Gajowniczek, cried out in agony over his wife and children who would be left behind. Fr. Kolbe stepped out of line, and act that by itself would normally have resulted in immediate execution, and offered himself in Francis’ place, saying, “I am a Catholic priest. I would like to take his place, because he has a wife and children.” The camp commandant was silent, and then accepted the exchange. The ten men were put in a standing cell and starved to death. For two weeks, as they died, Fr. Kolbe encouraged them to pray and to sing hymns. On August 14, 1941, the vigil of the feast of the Assumption, Maximilian was one of four prisoners still alive. His impatient captors executed him

Fr. Kolbe

by means of a lethal injection of carbolic acid and burned his body in the crematorium. 60 years later, on August 14th 2001, I was there in Auschwitz for a special Mass to mark that anniversary, a day which is now the feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe. Most of the beautiful work that St. Maximilian did in this world was destroyed… his friary was disbanded, his publications silenced, and he himself was killed. But his life is not a source of discouragement and depression,rather it is a beacon of great hope. Surely Auschwitz was one of the darkest places in all of human history, where over a million people were snuffed out and burned up. Yet, even there, a man of faith did not become part of the evil, rather he chose to freely offer himself for a stranger. Even as he was being starved to death, he prayed for his captors and forgave them. The man he

Francis G. & his wife

saved was reunited with his family and lived until 1995. He was present at both the beatification and the canonization of St. Maximilian, he testified during his entire life to his gratitude at the gift of life given to him. St. Maximilian Kolbe’s life not only bore a rich harvest in eternity, but even here in this world.

As a recent college graduate visiting Auschwitz, I was enormously grateful to see it in light of Kolbe’s life. With just the facts as they are normally stated, I think I would have left Auschwitz depressed and saddened at man’s inhumanity to man. In light of St. Maximilian Kolbe, I left there inspired and challenged to follow the Lord, confident that in Christ all circumstances could be overcome, even if that meant mortal death.

On the other side of the border, in Austria, we have another example of this kind of courage, of this seeking treasure above all in heaven. Franz Jägerstätter was raised in a small farming village, and after a wild life in his 20’s, he came home, settled down, married, and began the difficult task of raising his family as a peasant farmer. When the Nazi’s took over Austria, he voted against this, and was public in his resistance. Eventually he was drafted into the Nazi army, and he refused to serve. Not long after he was taken into custody, he was executed. In 2004 he was beatified.

And so the challenge comes to us… do we allow ourselves to be absorbed only in the good things of this world? They are good, just as God created them to be, but they are not God, and they are not our eternal destiny. We will return to dust, we will stand before the Lord’s throne, we will at that moment see clearly that many of the things that we have striven after here were not of the first importance. God offers you and me grace today, through these words of scripture, through the lives of these saints. Here the words of Blessed Franz Jägerstätter:

 “Just as the man who thinks only of this world does everything possible to make life here easier and better, so must we, too, who believe in the eternal kingdom, risk everything in order to receive a great reward there. Just as those who believe in National Socialism tell themselves that their struggle is for survival, so must we, too, convince ourselves that our struggle is for the eternal kingdom.”

 By God's grace, we do not face imprisonment or execution for following Christ, but it is nonetheless a constant temptation for us to be drawn and absorbed entirely by the things of this world.  Do we raise our eyes to the heavenly kingdom?  Do we struggle to put first things first?  Many voices will happily encourage us to acquire, to consume, to have... but this will not bring lasting peace. The moral current of our society flows farther and farther from God... do we allow ourselves simply to be carried along?  Perhaps it is even more difficult to keep track of heavenly treasure when we face the gradual and subtle temptations of our time.

Here the words of St. Paul,
“Brothers and Sisters, if you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seatred at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.”
May we use the things of this world well, honorably, and with love. May we set our sights and our hearts on eternal life, especially as we prepare to receive our Lord and Saviour now!

 

+ A. M. D. G. +