John 15: 12-16
Jesus said to his disciples:
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
To Lay Down One’s Life
Today, on the Feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe, we remember the savagery of Auschwitz, where Kolbe lived out the words of John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” In Kolbe’s case, he laid down his life for a stranger. The Nazis chose ten men to die of starvation because one inmate had escaped. Kolbe’s offer to take the place of one who was a husband and father was accepted.
A Polish Franciscan, Kolbe was imprisoned for being outspoken against Hitler and providing shelter to Jews. At Auschwitz, he went the extra, torturous mile by giving his life for a man who later attended his canonization.
None of us expect or hope for martyrdom. All of us have at one time wondered, “. . .but what would I do if. . .?” Let us pray to St. Maximilian for the courage to lead our lives for others.
—Effie Caldarola has a master’s degree in pastoral studies from Seattle University. She was a longtime columnist for Catholic News Service and now writes for OSV.
Prayer
St. Maximilian Kolbe, let us hear the words of Pope Francis and make them our prayer: “Ask Jesus what he wants from you, and be brave.”
—Effie Caldarola