Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest, Martyr
on Friday of week 19 in Ordinary Time
First Reading
Ezekiel 16:1–15, 60, 63
The word of the Lord was addressed to me as follows, ‘Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her filthy crimes. Say, “The Lord says this: By origin and birth you belong to the land of Canaan. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. At birth, the very day you were born, there was no one to cut your navel-string, or wash you in cleansing water, or rub you with salt, or wrap you in napkins. No one leaned kindly over you to do anything like that for you. You were exposed in the open fields; you were as unloved as that on the day you were born.
‘“I saw you struggling in your blood as I was passing, and I said to you as you lay in your blood: Live, and grow like the grass of the fields. You developed, you grew, you reached marriageable age. Your breasts and your hair both grew, but you were quite naked. Then I saw you as I was passing. Your time had come, the time for love. I spread part of my cloak over you and covered your nakedness; I bound myself by oath, I made a covenant with you – it is the Lord who speaks – and you became mine. I bathed you in water, I washed the blood off you, I anointed you with oil. I gave you embroidered dresses, fine leather shoes, a linen headband and a cloak of silk. I loaded you with jewels, gave you bracelets for your wrists and a necklace for your throat. I gave you nose-ring and earrings; I put a beautiful diadem on your head. You were loaded with gold and silver, and dressed in fine linen and embroidered silks. Your food was the finest flour, honey and oil. You grew more and more beautiful; and you rose to be queen. The fame of your beauty spread through the nations, since it was perfect, because I had clothed you with my own splendour – it is the Lord who speaks.
‘“You have become infatuated with your own beauty; you have used your fame to make yourself a prostitute; you have offered your services to all comers. But I will remember the covenant that I made with you when you were a girl, and I will conclude a covenant with you that shall last for ever. And so remember and be covered with shame, and in your confusion be reduced to silence, when I have pardoned you for all that you have done – it is the Lord who speaks.”’
Responsorial Psalm
Isaiah 12
You have turned from your anger to comfort me.
Truly, God is my salvation,
I trust, I shall not fear.
For the Lord is my strength, my song,
he became my saviour.
With joy you will draw water
from the wells of salvation.
You have turned from your anger to comfort me.
Give thanks to the Lord, give praise to his name!
Make his mighty deeds known to the peoples!
Declare the greatness of his name.
You have turned from your anger to comfort me.
Sing a psalm to the Lord
for he has done glorious deeds;
make them known to all the earth!
People of Zion, sing and shout for joy,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.
You have turned from your anger to comfort me.
Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia, alleluia!
Receive this message not as human words,
but as truly the word of God.
Alleluia!
Gospel
Matthew 19:3–12
Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and to test him they said, ‘Is it against the Law for a man to divorce his wife on any pretext whatever?’ He answered, ‘Have you not read that the creator from the beginning made them male and female and that he said: This is why a man must leave father and mother, and cling to his wife, and the two become one body? They are no longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not divide.’
They said to him, ‘Then why did Moses command that a writ of dismissal should be given in cases of divorce?’ ‘It was because you were so unteachable’ he said ‘that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but it was not like this from the beginning. Now I say this to you: the man who divorces his wife – I am not speaking of fornication – and marries another, is guilty of adultery.’
The disciples said to him, ‘If that is how things are between husband and wife, it is not advisable to marry.’ But he replied, ‘It is not everyone who can accept what I have said, but only those to whom it is granted. There are eunuchs born that way from their mother’s womb, there are eunuchs made so by men and there are eunuchs who have made themselves that way for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.’
Reflection
Ezekiel describes Jerusalem as an abandoned child whom God sees, rescues and calls to life. She has nothing with which to recommend herself and no one willing to care for her. Everything begins with God’s initiative: “I said to you as you lay in your blood: Live.” Before Jerusalem can respond, achieve or prove anything, she is seen and loved.
God does more than preserve her life. He washes her, clothes her, nourishes her and binds himself to her by covenant. Her beauty is real, but it is received rather than self-created. God tells her that her splendour was perfect because it was his splendour with which she had been clothed. The tragedy begins when Jerusalem forgets this distinction. She becomes infatuated with her beauty and treats the gift as though it belonged to her independently of the giver.
Sin is often rooted in this kind of forgetfulness. We take intelligence, influence, appearance, success or even faith itself and gradually detach it from the One who gave it. What was meant to reveal God’s generosity becomes material for self-importance. Jerusalem does not lose her beauty before becoming unfaithful; she becomes unfaithful because she mistakes received splendour for self-made glory.
Yet the final word of the reading is not abandonment. God declares, “I will remember the covenant.” Jerusalem has forgotten, but God remembers. She has broken faith, but his fidelity is deeper than her betrayal. Her shame will not be used merely to humiliate her. It will silence her self-justification when she recognises the enormity of the pardon she has received. The Catechism teaches that God’s covenant love remains steadfast despite Israel’s infidelity and prepares the way for the new and everlasting Covenant in Christ (CCC 1611–1612).
Isaiah’s psalm gives voice to the person who has encountered that mercy: “You have turned from your anger to comfort me.” This is not shallow optimism or denial of sin. The singer knows that judgement was deserved, yet discovers that God’s purpose is salvation. Trust replaces fear because the Lord himself has become the source of strength.
“With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” points beyond relief from punishment to renewed life with God. Salvation is not merely the cancellation of a record. It is communion restored and a new source from which life can be drawn. The redeemed person therefore gives thanks and makes God’s deeds known, recognising that mercy is not a private possession but a truth to be proclaimed.
In the Gospel, Jesus confronts another attempt to reduce covenant to human convenience. The Pharisees ask whether a man may divorce his wife “on any pretext whatever”. Their question centres on the limits of permission: how easily can a covenant be dissolved while still claiming obedience to the Law? Jesus refuses to remain within that narrow frame. He directs them back to creation and to what God intended “from the beginning”.
Marriage, in Christ’s teaching, is not simply a contract maintained while both parties find it useful. A man and woman become one body, and their union bears the mark of divine action: “What God has united, man must not divide.” The Catechism describes matrimonial consent as the human act through which spouses mutually give and receive one another, forming a covenant ordered towards lifelong unity and fidelity (CCC 1625–1632).
Jesus explains that Moses permitted divorce because of the hardness of the human heart. That concession addressed the consequences of sin, but it did not overturn the Creator’s design. Christ calls his disciples beyond the management of human hardness and into the grace that restores what sin has damaged. Christian marriage is demanding precisely because it makes visible Christ’s faithful and irrevocable love for his Church (CCC 1641–1642, 1646–1648).
This teaching must be received with pastoral seriousness. Christ’s words should never be used carelessly against people enduring abandonment, abuse or the breakdown of a marriage. Fidelity does not require someone to remain exposed to danger, and the Church recognises that physical separation can become necessary while the marriage bond remains (CCC 1649). Upholding the sanctity of marriage and responding compassionately to wounded people are not opposing duties.
Jesus then speaks of those who renounce marriage for the kingdom of heaven. Marriage and consecrated celibacy are not rivals. Both are vocations given by God, and both ask a person to surrender the idea that love exists merely for personal satisfaction. Marriage bears witness through faithful self-giving between spouses; celibacy bears witness to the coming kingdom and an undivided dedication to Christ (CCC 1618–1620).
The readings are united by covenant. Jerusalem receives God’s splendour but becomes unfaithful when she turns the gift towards herself. The Gospel recalls marriage to the fidelity intended by God from creation. In both, love is not a possession to be used according to changing desire. It is a gift that establishes a responsibility.
Saint Maximilian Kolbe embodied this truth with extraordinary clarity. His final sacrifice at Auschwitz did not arise from a single impulsive moment. It was the culmination of a life already surrendered to God through priesthood, Marian devotion and service. By volunteering to die in place of another prisoner, he revealed that love reaches its fulfilment not by grasping life for oneself but by giving oneself for another.
His witness does not replace the message of the readings; it makes their meaning visible. Jerusalem was called to recognise that her splendour came from God. Married couples and those consecrated to the kingdom are called to recognise their vocation as grace rather than personal achievement. Saint Maximilian shows what can happen when received grace is not hoarded but returned through self-giving love.
The Gospel Acclamation asks us to receive the message “not as human words, but as truly the word of God”. That reception requires more than admiration. God’s Word exposes the hardness that weakens fidelity, but it also offers the grace needed to love beyond convenience. The Lord who says, “Live,” is the same Lord who remembers his covenant, restores the sinner and makes faithful love possible.
One line to carry today:
Faithfulness begins when I remember that love is a gift entrusted to me, not a possession centred on me.
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