We recently
returned from a Pilgrimage of Mercy to Poland following the steps of St.
Maximillian Kolbe, St. Faustina & St. Pope John Paul II. One of the sites we visited was St.
Maximillian’s monastery. His story struck me deeply on how Fr. Kolbe was
arrested by the German Gestapo and taken to prison. Three months later, he was transferred to
Auschwitz and became the victim to severe violence and harassment. Toward the
end of his second month in Auschwitz, men were chosen to face death by
starvation to warn against escapes. Fr. Kolbe
was not chosen but volunteered to take the place of a man with a family. It is said during the last days of his life
Kolbe led prayers to Our Lady with the prisoners and remained calm. He was the
last of the group to remain alive, after two weeks of dehydration and
starvation. The guards gave him a lethal injection of carbolic acid. The stories
tell that he raised his left arm and calmly awaited death.[1]
Where does
one find the courage to lay down their life and receive death so calmly? Much like the Maccabean brothers and their
mother, in the first reading, who chose to be faithful to God rather than
transgress God’s laws. They endured the cruel sport of their tormentors offered
their lives, not out of lust for suffering or a rejection of the world, but in
trust of the living God.[2]
Faith in the promise of resurrection.
As we
ponder Jesus’ confrontation with the Sadducees, regarding life in the world to
come, compels us to ask, “Do we believe in resurrection?” How one answers this question orients how we
live today. It is a question that is not so much answered intellectually as it
is in the ordering of our loves. Who or what is our true love? Do we find our loves fulfilled in the living
God or in the promises of this world?
In his
response to the Sadducees, Jesus states that God, is a God of the living,
speaking in the present tense of the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob. All people are alive to God.
So, the Resurrection is not just about a future life. It’s also about our current life, which will
be transformed in life beyond the world as we know it. The Gospel is revealing
that the real life is both now and then, and how we live now is how it will be
forever.
It’s really
very simple, our choice in how we live our life right now is telling God what
you want. If you are living a life of
negativity, separation, judgments, and hatred, that’s Hell and it begins right
now. Sadly, some people, I’m afraid, choose
hatred and are living in their own Hell.
They’re not going to be surprised when their earthly journey ends.
Yet, if we
choose love, then we’re choosing the eternal element that exists forever. Choosing to love and serve this world and our
neighbor, we’re already having a foretaste of Heaven. Maybe it doesn’t always feel like it but the fact
remains, it’s a foretaste of the promise.
Jesus wasn’t putting down marriage in this reading. He’s simply saying marriage is a school of
eternity because at least we’re learning how to be united to one other
person. The reason he says Heaven will
not be about marriage is because Heaven is a universal connection, not just
with one other person, but with everything and everybody.[3]
God
journeys with us and will help us negotiate life here and hereafter, if we
allow God to give us direction and hope.
Everything we have loved will be with you in eternity. Many of us will be happy to know this
includes our dog or our cat.
As
Catholics, we express our trust in God during the Catholic funeral rites when
we profess our belief that at death “life is changed, not taken away.” This Eucharist is an expression of our belief
in the good news that Christ is risen and has won for us a life stronger than
death.
There was a
picture in the museum at the monastery that captured my contemplative
gaze. It was a picture of the gray concentration
camp with Fr. Kolbe, in his stripes, being taken up heavenward and behind him a
great multitude of others, literally rising from the ashes. We just received a card this week in our
office from a widow who lost her husband unexpectedly. She wrote, “We are all blessed by David, his
love for…” Do you hear and see how she
communicates about her husband, “we are blessed” she speaks as someone who believe
her husband is alive with Christ and interceding for us. This is a person who believes all we profess
in the Creed.
“I believe
in God” a living God, I believe in Jesus Christ, the first fruits of the life
to come, I believe in the Holy Spirit, who is active in our daily lives, and the
Communion of Saints including all those we’ve loved and have proceeded us.
[1] St. Maximilian Kolbe, Catholic Online / Saints &
Angels, https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=370
[2] The Word on the Street, by John W. Martens,
“The Living God” © 2018
[3] Hungry, and You Fed Me © 2012 Edited by Jim
Knipper. “The LORD is not God of the dead, but of the living.” Fr. Richard
Rohr, O.F.M.
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