Good morning Digital Neighbors! Happy Wednesday to all. It is the Feast Day of St. Maximillian Kolbe, a few words of wisdom from him in the morning Office. Probably not everyone’s cup of tea, but then again nothing really is. We all vary in what touches the heart, stirs the mind or speaks to our interior self (if you have one). A bit about the saint before we hear his words on apostolic zeal.
Today the Church honors St. Maximilian Kolbe; a Polish Franciscan priest, international publisher of Marian devotion and 20th century martyr. At age 13, he entered a Franciscan minor seminary, becoming ordained at age 24. He held doctorates in theology and philosophy. In 1917, he led a small group of Franciscans to Rome to stand against anti-Catholic demonstrations and formed an association called the Militia Immaculata (M.I.). When he returned to Poland, the M.I. started producing faith periodicals; eventually growing into a publishing house of 650 friars – the largest religious house in the world. With Marian devotion as a focus to Christ, the M.I. began a daily newspaper, a monthly magazine, a radio station, and planned a movie studio. His circulation reached over a million readers and a second location was established in Nagasaki, Japan. In 1941, St. Maximilian was arrested and placed in a Nazi death camp. Shortly after, he died at Auschwitz, from a lethal injection, when he bartered his own life for a man’s who had a family. St. Maximilian is the patron saint of journalists, families, and the chemically addicted.
From the Letters of Maximilian Mary Kolbe
Apostolic zeal for the salvation and sanctification of souls
The burning zeal for God’s glory that motivates you fills my heart with joy. It is sad for us to see in our own time that indifferentism in its many forms is spreading like an epidemic not only among the laity but also among religious. But God is worthy of glory beyond measure, and therefore it is of absolute and supreme importance to seek that glory with all the power of our feeble resources. Since we are mere creatures we can never return to him all that is his due. The most resplendent manifestation of God’s glory is the salvation of souls, whom Christ redeemed by shedding his blood. To work for the salvation and sanctification of as many souls as possible, therefore, is the preeminent purpose of the apostolic life. Let me, then, say a few words that may show the way toward achieving God’s glory and the sanctification of many souls.
God, who is all-knowing and all-wise, knows best what we should do to increase his glory. Through his representatives on earth he continually reveals his will to us; thus it is obedience and obedience alone that is the sure sign to us of the divine will. A superior may, it is true, make a mistake; but it is impossible for us to be mistaken in obeying a superior’s command. The only exception to this rule is the case of a superior commanding something that in even the slightest way would contravene God’s law. Such a superior would not be conveying God’s will.
God alone is infinitely wise, holy, merciful, our Lord, Creator, and Father; he is beginning and end, wisdom and power and love; he is all. Everything other than God has value to the degree that it is referred to him, the maker of all and our own redeemer, the final end of all things. It is he who, declaring his adorable will to us through his representatives on earth, draws us to himself and whose plan is to draw others to himself through us and to join us all to himself in an ever deepening love.
Look, then, at the high dignity that by God’s mercy belongs to our state in life. Obedience raises us beyond the limits of our littleness and puts us in harmony with God’s will. In boundless wisdom and care, his will guides us to act rightly. Holding fast to that will, which no creature can thwart, we are filled with unsurpassable strength.
Obedience is the one and the only way of wisdom and prudence for us to offer glory to God. If there were another, Christ would certainly have shown it to us by word and example. Scripture, however, summed up his entire life at Nazareth in the words: He was subject to them; Scripture set obedience as the theme of the rest of his life, repeatedly declaring that he came into the world to do his Father’s will. Let us love our loving Father with all our hearts. Let our obedience increase that love, above all when it requires us to surrender our own will. Jesus Christ crucified is our sublime guide toward growth in God’s love.
We will learn this lesson more quickly through the Immaculate Virgin, whom God has made the dispenser of his mercy. It is beyond all doubt that Mary’s will represents to us the will of God himself. By dedicating ourselves to her we become in her hands instruments of God’s mercy even as she was such an instrument in God’s hands. We should let ourselves be guided and led by Mary and rest quiet and secure in her hands. She will watch out for us, provide for us, answer our needs of body and spirit; she will dissolve all our difficulties and worries.
