The Eucharist: Opening Our Eyes to Unity, Love
In our day and age, we are all aware of the impacts of polarization and animosity and division.
On the one hand, division and differences are a part of life and not bad at all; we all have likes and dislikes. It is also important to stand up for what we believe in, and Jesus even says He will be a cause of division for His teachings can be hard for some to accept.
But what we are called to do is to truly love one another. And the saints show us in so many ways to do that.
One in particular whose story has always amazed me is that of Saint Maximilian Kolbe.
Born Raymond, he was the second son of a poor weaver born on January 8th, 1894 near Lodz in Poland. His parents were very faithful Catholics, with a particular devotion to Mary. As a child, he remembers having a vision of Mary that changed his life. “That night, I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me. Then she came to me holding two crowns, one white, the other red. She asked me if I was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity, and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them both.” It was a foreshadow of where his life would take him.
He initially felt a call to the priesthood, and so entered a junior Franciscan seminary with his older brother. He entered the full seminary in September of 1910 and took the new name of Maximilian. He’d go on to study philosophy and theology, earning two doctorates, and would be ordained a priest in Rome in April of 1918.
It was in Rome that he began to see how in the world, the seed was falling on the soil but was being choked off by many different things. He saw a lot of evil being done by others, including those who were attacking the Catholic Church with lies. And so he decided to do something about it and formed a new army: the Crusade of Mary Immaculate, with the aim of reaching out to those who were persecuting the Church. Inspired by Mary, Maximilian also strove to grow as a person because of her. In a biography on his life, it is said that “It was for her that he strove to develop all the good that was in him, and he wanted to encourage others to do the same.”
In Poland, when he returned there in 1919 after his ordination, he set about trying to set the country on fire with a devotion to our Blessed Mother. This whole time he was quite sick as well; he’d suffered from tuberculosis; he had a collapsed lung and the other was damaged. But it didn’t stop him. He published a monthly paper, and despite there being little money for it he expanded it from 5,000 copies to 70,000 in a five-year period. Incredibly 10 years later, that was up to 750,000 copies per month. Needless to say, he was scattering a lot of seed. He also worked hard to establish a new friary called City of the Immaculate which some ways was the largest in the world at the time.
Incredibly at this time in Poland, by the late 30s, due in large part to his efforts, the faith was going strong. Priests in parishes all over reported an upsurge of faith, and they attributed it to Fr. Kolbe’s literature. Years later after the war and when Communism gripped the country, the Polish bishops sent a letter to the Holy See saying that Fr. Kolbe’s magazine had prepared the Polish nation to endure and survive the horrors of war that was to follow. Also during this time, Fr. Kolbe went with four brothers to the East to minister to the Japanese; he built another friary in Nagasaki on the slopes of a mountain which protected it from the later atomic bomb. It was said he was very creative in how he ministered to the Japanese, in that he respected their customs and looked for what was good in Buddhism and Shintoism; even talking with Buddhist priests.
When he was recalled to Poland, it was in September of 1939 that the Nazis invaded, but while he was imprisoned briefly, he was eventually set free. Seeing what was going on though, Fr. Kolbe was determined to act. And so he organized a shelter for Polish refugees, 2,000 of whom were Jewish. To him it didn’t matter if they were not Catholic; he said “We must do everything in our power to help these unfortunate people who have been driven from their homes and deprived of even the most basic necessities. Our mission is among them in the days that lie ahead.” And Fr. Kolbe along with the friars shared everything with these people.”
It wasn’t too long after this that he would demonstrate how he had completely trumped over sin and evil in his soul. Arrested and sent to Auschwitz, he was treated with incredible cruelty. An SS Guard struck him and ask him if he believed in Christ when he saw him with his rosary; every time he affirmed his belief he’d receive another blow. He was given grueling manual labor, including once being forced to carry 50 planks and when collapsing being given 50 lashes and then kicked in the stomach and face. He lost consciousness and was left for dead; when his companions brought him to the camp hospital despite his suffering he here heard confessions and spoke with other inmates about the love of God.
In July of 1941, when there was an apparent escape, 10 men were chosen to die to be made an example of to prevent others from having ideas of escaping. Fr. Kolbe was not chosen, but when one man cried out “my poor wife and my poor children,” he offered to take his place. Fr. Kolbe was taken to die with the other 9, where he was starved in Block 13 for a two week period. During this time it was reported he led people in prayers and hymns and tried to keep their spirits high; when an SS guard would come in apparently Fr. Kolbe would be seen kneeling, or smiling; never angry. Words of his heroism spread quickly after the war, and he was canonized by John Paul II in October of 1982. His feast day is in on August 14th.
As we celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, it’s a reminder the Eucharist is meant to transform us; to open up our eyes to the love of God and what that means.
For one, it means we strive to see all people as sons and daughters of God. Fr. Kolbe did not see people based on race or religion; he saw simply people in need, and he did something about it. We see this in our own times as well in how in humanity there is such a capacity for good, such as seen by the outpouring of support for the tragic loss of life that occurred with state senator Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark. We can and should have passion about what we believe, but we also must strive to not let this turn into hate.
With that, the Eucharist shows us the depth of God’s love. “This is my Body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me,” Paul reminds us of the words of Jesus at the Last Supper in our second reading. And in this week’s Gospel, the miracle of the loaves and fishes, Jesus performs the miracle, but the disciples feed the crowd from the bread and fish Jesus has multiplied. So it must be with you and me. Fr. Kolbe saw a world full of hate and division (sound familiar?) but rather than lament or give up, he got to work with his newspaper, with his radio broadcasts, with his helping people in need. We do this too when we stand up for what we believe in, when we forgive, when we stop feeling we have to almost apologize for being Catholic or hide our faith but rather proclaim it through trying to catechize people and explain the faith to them as an evangelist; when we do acts of mercy. The world is hungry for the truth and wants to know God – hopefully we strive to feed one another with the food Jesus gives us.
Inside every person is such a capacity for good, for we are created in the image of God. The problem is sin can destroy and take over a person’s life. God though sees our potential, which is why Jesus has given His life for us all, something that we call to mind every time we gather around the altar. May the love that Jesus gives us transform us as it transformed Fr. Kolbe into a saint – a love he in turn used to transform a horrific place into a place where people could see mercy and hope. When we receive our Lord in Holy Communion, may our eyes too be opened to how deeply God loves us, and also inspire us to see one another through the eyes of Jesus, filling a needy world with the love and mercy of our Lord.
God bless, Fr. Paul
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June 2025