In St. Maximilian Kolbe’s Office
One
Evangelize the World and Use Every Means
St. Maximilian Kolbe wanted to win all souls to Christ and use every new means of technology available.
In 1922 He began to publish a magazine in Kraków called the Knight of Mary Immaculate. By 1940 it reached a distribution of one million copies per month. However, the production of the magazine outgrew the monastery in Kraków. So he built a monastery which consisted of an entirely self-subsistent town, a printing house and seminary just outside Warsaw. He called it Niepokalanow, the City of the Immaculate.
In ten short years, the City of Mary became the largest monastery in the world. In 1939, it housed more than 700 priests, seminarians, and brothers.
Kolbe got the national railroad to bring its line to his monastery so he could more quickly distribute his material. A radio station was installed at Neipokalanow. He planned to make movies, had a runway built, and began training pilots.
Maximilian Kolbe is the model for our age. He combined within himself a commitment to deep prayer, total belonging to Mary, along with ingenuity, an entrepreneurial spirit, the willingness to take risks and do whatever new thing necessary to win souls to Christ.
Kolbe wanted to bring the Gospel to the end of the earth. So he began to desire to establish a mission in Japan. He went to his superior, the head of the Franciscans in Poland, and asked him for permission. The Superior General asked, “Do you have any money?” No. “Do you know the Japanese language?” No. “Do you at least know someone in Japan that can help you?”
“No, but Mary will help me,” was Kolbe’s reply!
He was granted permission and on February 26th, 1930, set off for Nagasaki, Japan where he arrived on April 24, 1930. There he built Mugenzai no Sono (the Garden of the Immaculate), on the opposite slope of Mount Kikosan, facing away from the city, the mountain hiding his monastery.
People thought Maximilian was crazy. Why build it with the mountain in between them and the city? But in 1945, when the atomic bomb destroyed Nagasaki, Mugenzai no Sono sustained no more damage than a few broken pains of stained glass. Because it survived the nuclear blast it became the place where thousands were cared for. Still, today it forms the center of a Franciscan province.
Two
Suffering is the Greatest Means
You might expect that to accomplish all this Kolbe had unusually good health. It was just the opposite.
In 1917, when he was just 23 years old, he was diagnosed with Tuberculosis, a disease which at that time was incurable and hence terminal. Kolbe lived and prayed and worked for the rest of his life with one lung collapsed and the other damaged. He ran a perpetual fever and continuously felt himself overshadowed by death.
I see sickness and suffering as a punishment from God. “Why are you letting this happen?” I ask, “Why are you doing this to me?” I see these as a hindrance and obstacle, holding me back from what I want to accomplish, from what I want to become.
Kolbe saw more clearly. He understood that suffering, difficulties, and the Cross are the greatest means to allow God’s Life, Love, and Power to work through him for the good of souls and to effect change in the world.
Suffering strips us of self-reliance. Then we can rely totally on God. That is when we become powerful.
Tuberculosis was not a hindrance to Kolbe. It forced him to surrender to God. The surrender unleashed the power of God to enable Kolbe to accomplish wonders!
Kolbe understood what God meant when he said to St. Paul, “My power is at its best in weakness.”
Three
Homily on Suffering and Love
On Sunday, February 16th, 1941, one day before his arrest beginning his Way of the Cross that would end in Auschwitz, Kolbe gave a homily on suffering and love.
He said, “Love and suffering often are companions, He who loves is vulnerable. In the Immaculata we perceive that her great love for her Son caused her great suffering under His cross. The saints could not conceive of life divorced from suffering.
“Suffering for love nourishes love. Seeking to avoid crosses, mortification and suffering can’t lead to happiness. On the other hand, whoever willingly suffers much for the sake of love will know the soul’s highest fulfillment. That which produces the soul’s most priceless merits are those moments of suffering and of the cross.
“If God determines for us a path of suffering and our soul must walk a thorny path, we may rejoice and be certain that He also destines us for a high perfection. God exhibits a special love for those he purifies in this life because the purification of purgatory is both long and severe. In this life the voluntary acceptance of crosses is rewarded by greater glory in Heaven.
“The more powerful and courageous a soul becomes with the help of God’s grace, the greater the cross God places upon his shoulders so that the believer mirrors as closely as possible his crucified Lord.
“We accumulate heavenly graces if we persevere, despite sadness, fatigue, suffering, persecution, failure, desertion, ridicule – and, as Jesus on the cross did, we shall pray for everyone and strive in every manner to draw people to God through the Immaculata.
“Suffering and sacrifice are the proofs of love. When love encompasses and penetrates our inner being, sacrifices become necessary for the soul. Spiritual joy is born of sacrifice. Remember, love lives and is nourished by sacrifice.”
Four
Love and Sacrifice
Kolbe said, “Remember, love lives and is nourished by sacrifice.”
Kolbe gives us a simple method to remove our cross. Kolbe said, “A cross consists of two pieces of wood crossed at one point. In everyday life, our cross consists in our will crossing the will of God. To remove it, it is necessary to conform our will to the will of God.”
Five
Overcoming Trials
When you face some temptation, some suffering or some difficulty and you feel you cannot go on, turn immediately to Mary. There is such an intimate connection between the Holy Spirit and Mary and they will strengthen you from within to do and to endure what you cannot do or endure on your own. When you feel you can’t go on simply say, “Mary!”
As Kolbe would say, “I see Mary everywhere, I see difficulties nowhere!”