“Eat What I Shall Give You” by Melanie Rigney (@melanierigney)

“Eat What I Shall Give You” by Melanie Rigney

Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr

The Lord GOD said to me: As for you, son of man, obey me when I speak to you: be not rebellious like this house of rebellion, but open your mouth and eat what I shall give you. (Ezekiel 2:8)

How sweet to my taste is your promise! (Psalm 119:103a)

“Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:2-3)

Piety

Lord, help me to quiet the demons inside and accept Your plan for me.

Study

He was still a child when the Blessed Virgin put the choice before him: Would Raymond Kolbe accept a white crown for purity or a red one for martyrdom? He answered that he would accept them both.

And so, he did.

When he was thirteen, Raymond and an older brother entered a Franciscan seminary. When he was seventeen, he took his first vows… and the name Maximilian. He studied in Rome and spent time in China, Japan, and India before returning to Poland in 1936. The Gestapo arrested him in February 1941, and three months later, he became prisoner 16670 at Auschwitz. But while he might have been a number to his captors, he was a source of comfort to his fellow prisoners and salvation to one in particular. When Franciszek Gajowniczek cried out in agony when he was selected as one of ten men to starve to death, Maximilian offered to take his place. Two weeks later, Maximilian was the only one of the ten still fully conscious. He raised his arm and prayed when the camp executioner came to give him a lethal injection so the cell could be cleared for others.

The white crown for purity. The red crown for martyrdom. Maximilian accepted them. He wore them with humility and obedience to the earthly end. He didn’t rebel, didn’t complain to other prisoners about the unfairness of it all and wondering what would have happened if he’d been allowed to stay in Asia. He ministered where he was… and offered himself in Christ’s name. He ate what was given to him, as Ezekiel puts it in today’s first reading, and found the Lord’s promise to be sweet. May we have the faith to accept the crowns being placed before us.

Action

Talk with a spiritual adviser about the daunting challenge of saying yes to the Lord.

Image credit: By http://www.v-like-vintage.net/uploads/images/Cropped700/00130919.jpg [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.