WEDNESDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe
Ez 9: 1-7; 10: 18-22 Ps 113: 1-6 Mt 18: 15-20
THE INCREDIBLE CALL OF LOVE
Saint Maximilian Kolbe is known for the sacrifice of his life for the sake of another prisoner. Fr. Kolbe was a prisoner in the Nazi camp and like a number of other Christians and Jews was arrested and kept prisoner unjustly. On a particular day when one of the prisoners called to be executed complained that he had a family, Fr. Kolbe stepped forward and took his place. The man destined to die that day survived, was released from the concentration camps at the end of the war and told the story of this great martyr.
Some Christians make God’s wrath central in their lives, lest we be cast out and struck down into eternal damnation for our sins. It is God’s wrath, they argue, not God’s love. The first reading would actually support such an argument. However, we should remember that the Book of Ezekiel closes with a narrative of Israel rising to new life. In this way we are taught that this destruction paved the way for the Lord’s new covenant with his people. They are always hard lessons!
Our Gospel today speaks of how the Lord expects us to love our brothers and sisters. When they sin, especially when they sin against you, the Lord expects us to go and tell them their fault. This is not to point out faults, but to serve each other in love, that none of us may allow resentments to fester in our hearts. We are still called to take out the log which is in our own eye before we take out the speck in our brother’s eye (Mt 7:5).
It also tells us to help our brother and sister to understand his fault directly or else by taking the help of others, so that we may win them over to the truth. The biggest challenge for us to overcome in this area is anger. We are to by the grace of the Lord turn anger into love, forgive our brother and truly try to win our brother back to the Lord and to peace and as possible like Saint Maximilian Kolbe even lay our life down for our brother.
Response: The glory of the Lord is above the heaven.
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