All week we have been walking through the vineyard of God, walking in the footsteps of the flocks seeking to catch a glance at the Shepherd.
Today we follow in the footsteps Maximilian Kolbe.
When he was a young child growing up he was scolded by his parents for getting in to trouble, for fighting.
So taken by the scolding that night he asked the Mother of God what was going come of him and his life. That night he had a dream in which the Blessed Mother came to him with two crowns, a white one and a red one. The white stood for purity and the red for martyrdom. She asked him, in the dream, which does he choose. In his dream his response was that he was willing to accept both.
This dream colored his entire life and all of his actions.
For the Christian, life can never be lived in the sleeping state. At some point,t he dream must be brought into reality and lived in the moment. The day dream gives way to a life of purpose. The dream urges us forward but ultimately gives way to reality.
Such is the the life of the saints.
Maximilian Kolbe enetered the Franciscans and was ordained. He spent his life in service to Christ.
He was noted as saying, "No one can change the truth. What we can do and should do is seek the truth and to serve it when we found it. The real conflict of life is not on the battlefield but it is an inner conflict. There are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of the human soul: good and evil, sin and love. What good are the victories on the battlefield if we oursleves are defeated in our innermost and personal selves."
As a priest in Poland he was sent to Aushwitz, a extermination camp.
In the summer of 1941, three prisoners escaped. It order to punish the prisoners in the camp, the Germans ordered ten men to be picked randomly and be executed by starvation.
Fr. Kolbe volunteered to take the place of one of the men who was chosen. This man, once he was selected, screamed out, "my poor wife, my poor children, I'll never see them again." In response to this plea, Fr. Kolbe asked if he could exchange places with this man.
The guard agreed. so, prisoner number 16670 stepped forward and the exchange took place, and he along with the other nine were led to the starvation chamber below. He spent two weeks encouraging the other nine to keep the hope, with song and spiritual consolation. Slowly the nine died, leaving Fr. Kobe the last man standing. After two weeks, the Germans injected him with poison so that he might finally die.
He had stayed true to his word and willingly accepted both crowns offered by the Blessed mother in the dream, the white and the red. He gave his life in exchange for the life of another.
His dream became a reality.
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