Daily Gospel Reflection

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August 14, 2023

Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr
Mt 17:22-27
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As Jesus and his disciples were gathering in Galilee,
Jesus said to them,
“The Son of Man is to be handed over to men,
and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.”
And they were overwhelmed with grief.

When they came to Capernaum,
the collectors of the temple tax approached Peter and said,
“Does not your teacher pay the temple tax?”
“Yes,” he said.
When he came into the house, before he had time to speak,
Jesus asked him, “What is your opinion, Simon?
From whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or census tax?
From their subjects or from foreigners?”
When he said, “From foreigners,” Jesus said to him,
“Then the subjects are exempt.
But that we may not offend them, go to the sea, drop in a hook,
and take the first fish that comes up.
Open its mouth and you will find a coin worth twice the temple tax.
Give that to them for me and for you.”

Reflection

Mary Catherine McDonald
Program Coordinator of Pastoral Care
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On the surface, Peter is facing a practical question of tax, but if you look more closely, you find it is a question of identity and how the different parts of his identity require him to act in the world.

This is a question we all face: How do we, as followers of Christ, live, work, and love in the world? Like the tax to Peter, we are faced with the nuances and complexities of our identity in answering this tricky question.

While we may face some of the same situations, the nuances and complexities will differ because of our family’s norms, our broader community’s expectations, the way we understand our faith, and the amount of freedom and agency we feel we have.Therefore, a decision about ailing parents, infidelity of a partner, navigating a meeting as a minority in the room, or responding to your friend’s vulnerability, will look different for each of us. It can sometimes feel like our call to be Christian is pulling us in multiple different directions. Sometimes it feels like we are just sitting in the tension of these nuances, unclear on how to proceed.

Faced with this dilemma, what does Jesus offer Peter? Jesus provides for that tension. Jesus named it, asked Peter to think through it, and then gave Peter what he needed to handle it. Jesus sent Peter to go fishing.

Jesus sent Peter to do the thing that Peter knew how to do best to find the way forward. So as we face these complexities, let us reflect on what that might be for us.

Prayer

Rev. Brendan J. McAleer, C.S.C.

God of love and life, you were handed over to men to be tortured and killed, but death was not the end. You rose on the third day. We know that throughout our lives there are times of resurrection but also times of grief. Help each of us, our families, and those we love to never forget the promise of your resurrection. We ask that you continue to send us saintly women and men who are witnesses of your rising so that we may be inspired to grow into the saints that you are calling us to be. Amen.

Saint of the Day

St. Maximilian Kolbe
St. Maximilian Kolbe

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 (pictured here as it looks today) 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; illustration by Julie Lonneman and used with permission.

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.