Death Out Of Love

Christ on the Cross, Eugene Delacroix, 1853

Today the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe, who was canonized by Saint John Paul II in 1982.

A Polish Franciscan with a deep devotion to Mary, Kolbe gave his own life for a fellow prisoner at the Auschwitz extermination camp, taking on the man's punishment of death by starvation because he had a wife and children. Not only this, but the saint also gave life to others in the camp, reminding them of their dignity as persons and that hope was not yet lost. Kolbe is particularly remembered for leading the nine others condemned to starvation in Marian hymns and the Rosary as they awaited their death.

St. John Paul II had a deep devotion to Maximilian Kolbe, and his sacrifice in the heart of darkness gave the late Holy Father much hope as he discerned his own vocation in war torn Poland. Kolbe’s Christ-like gift of self stood as a model of priesthood for him, and the Franciscan's hope in the midst of hatred inspired a renewed respect for the dignity of the human person in a place and a time in which it seemed to have been forgotten.

A Young Woman in Search of the Truth

Today the Church celebrates the feast of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, or Edith Stein, who was canonized by Blessed John Paul II in 1998. “A young woman in search of the truth,” Edith serves as a model for young thinkers seeking what is good and right, and what is truly free. Although she was brought up by a Jewish mother, Edith turned from prayer to philosophy and self-reliance as she grew. Her heart yearned for hope as she searched for truth, and this open-hearted seeking eventually led to a surprising answer: “only those who commit themselves to the love of Christ become truly free.”

And commit to Christ she did. Once St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross found the Truth, she gave herself to Him through entering the Carmelite Order and eventually, through her martyrdom. In his homily for her canonization Mass, Blessed John Paul II said:

Because she was Jewish, Edith Stein was taken with her sister Rosa and many other Catholic Jews from the Netherlands to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, where she died with them in the gas chambers. Today we remember them all with deep respect. A few days before her deportation, the woman religious had dismissed the question about a possible rescue: “Do not do it! Why should I be spared? Is it not right that I should gain no advantage from my Baptism? If I cannot share the lot of my brothers and sisters, my life, in a certain sense, is destroyed”.

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, the “martyr for love” who told us not to “accept anything as the truth if it lacks love” or “accept anything as love which lacks truth,” Pray for Us!