Daily Gospel Reflection
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August 14, 2020
Some Pharisees came to Jesus, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?”
He answered, “Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
They said to him, “Why then did Moses command that the man give the woman a bill of divorce and dismiss her?”
He said to them, “It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) and marries another commits adultery.”
His disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”
But he said to them, “Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given. Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.”
Today is the feast day of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish Franciscan who was an amazing evangelist and opposed the Nazis openly after the invasion of Poland. Kolbe was arrested and imprisoned by the Nazis while other religious leaders at the time remained silent so as to avoid such conflict. Kolbe ministers to his fellow prisoners in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz and was a source of great hope and comfort to many. He was executed by the Nazis in 1941.
The Polish martyr provides us with an interesting lens through which to view today’s gospel passage. As the Pharisees test Jesus on the teaching about divorce, Jesus reminds them of the creation passage from Genesis where man and woman are created for one another and become “one flesh.” He then solemnly declares: “Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
Maximilian Kolbe–although not married himself, of course–offers us a powerful witness to this scripture. Ten men escaped Auschwitz while he was a prisoner there so the guards selected ten men to execute as a deterrent to further escapes. One man who was selected pleaded that he had a wife and young family.
Kolbe volunteered to be executed in his place.
What God had joined together, Kolbe would not allow to be separated by the violence of the Nazis. He honored and protected that man’s marriage and family with his very life. The man he saved was present at his canonization some forty years later.
As I reflect on this reading today, I ask myself: if Maximilian Kolbe was willing to sacrifice himself to protect a married couple and their children, am I willing to sacrifice my own ego and selfish desires for the sake of my marriage and family? I pray that I can. If we understand marriage in this way, inspired by this great saint, I think we will bring ourselves closer to understanding Jesus’ message today.
Prayer
Lord, you teach us to hold the covenant of marriage in the highest dignity. Bless all husbands and wives in their promises of love and fidelity to one another. Help all couples experiencing difficulties. Assist all members of your Church to support and encourage one another in our vocations. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Maximilian Kolbe was an outspoken Franciscan priest from Poland who was killed for opposing the Nazis.
He was the middle son of three children and was a strain on his parents because he was unruly. When he was 12 he received a vision of Mary while he was praying in front of an image of Our Lady of Czestochowa. She approached him with two crowns, one white and one red. “I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me,” he said. “She asked if I was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity, and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them both.”
He entered the seminary and became a Franciscan priest, taking the name Maximilian. He went on to higher studies at several universities in Europe and earned his doctoral degree in theology—in fact, his ideas about Mary found resonance in the later developments of the Second Vatican Council.
With some friends, he established an “army” for the Immaculate Heart of Mary—a group of people dedicated to conversion and devotion to Mary. He fell ill with tuberculosis, and never fully recovered—he spent the rest of his life in fragile health that would frequently interrupt his work.
He returned to Poland and began a flurry of evangelical activity, establishing a magazine and newspaper, which, at their peak, were publishing close to 1 million copies a day. He also founded a monastery and junior seminary.
He took some companions to evangelize Japan, even though they did not know the language and had no money. Within months, he was publishing 65,000 copies of his magazine in Japanese there, and had founded a monastery in Nagasaki. The monastery survived the later nuclear bomb blast there, and continues to serve as a center for Franciscans in Japan.
His poor health forced him to return to Poland in 1936, and he helped his monastery establish a radio station. By 1939, the monastery in Poland held some 800 monks, the largest in the world at the time.
When the Nazis invaded Poland in the fall of 1939, Maximilian was arrested and detained for a time. After his release, his monastery’s media continued to publicly oppose the Nazis; they hid some 3,000 Polish refugees, most of whom were Jewish. The Nazis cracked down on the monastery, shut down the presses, dispersed the brothers, and imprisoned Maximilian.
In 1941, Maximilian was transferred to the concentration camp at Auschwitz, where he became prisoner 16670. His calm demeanor and faithfulness earned him beatings and the most difficult tasks. Once he was beaten and whipped so badly, he was left for dead. Prisoners snuck him into the camp hospital, and he spent his recovery hearing confessions.
In July of that year, some prisoners escaped the camp. In retribution, the Nazis selected ten men for execution for each man that escaped. One man who was selected for execution exclaimed, sobbing, that he had a wife and young children. Maximilian volunteered to take the man’s place.
Maximilian and nine other prisoners were sealed in a chamber without food or water. He survived on prayer for two weeks before he was executed by lethal injection on this day in 1941. The man he saved was present with his family at Maximilian’s canonization Mass 40 years later.
Because of the manner of his execution, St. Maximilian Kolbe is the patron saint of drug addicts; he is also patron of political prisoners, families, journalists, and the pro-life movement. His story and image are used by high school students who come to campus for a summer conference with the Notre Dame Vision program.
St. Maximilian Kolbe, you opposed the Nazis and gave your life that another prisoner could live—pray for us!
To learn even more about Saint Maximilian Kolbe, watch this video lecture from the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Maximilian Kolbe is an illustration by Julie Lonneman, who holds exclusive rights to the further distribution and publication of her art. Used with permission.