Today we celebrate the memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan priest who was ordained around the turn of the 20th century. Scholar, publisher, writer, advocate, and martyr, St. Maximilian embodied the person of Christ through teaching the faith and finally expressing the greatest act of love, his own death for the life of another – perhaps someone he hardly knew.
Today’s readings express a different tone, not about faith, but something much deeper reserved for all of His creation: Love!
Today’s readings give us a glimpse of God’s Love for humanity. The type of Love St. Maximilian had for the person he saved from the hands of the executioner. The same love we find in the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love.
Many themes in biblical scripture speak more about Faith than about any other virtue. We know this to be true because Saints Paul, Peter, and James wrote at length about the importance of faith in the Christian life. Even in the Gospel of Matthew, we see Jesus challenging his disciples on the strength of their own faith. Yes, faith is important, as it ties His creation to the Divine.
Faith is the fulcrum that changes our heart into His sacred heart, aligning our soul with the Divine as One.
Yet, one must also ask: what motivates our faith on this path?
And today we get a glimpse of how God loves and knows us. He is the creator, and we are his creation. Creation that came from nothing, no status, no wealth, and no honor.
But He gave us the awareness of Love, the capacity to Love like no other. And with this virtue to love like God, we received free will –
for true love is chosen, not imposed.
God knew of our vices, our mediocrity, our harlotry, yet he still created us. And like a good father, he never gave up on us because of the covenant he made with His creation.
As the Creator, he stayed with us for the long haul to teach, to guide, and to nurture us for eternity, so we can be co-heirs with him forever.
This is a beautiful love story, my theologians.
Our love must ascend beyond feelings and recognize that God’s love transfigures into something much larger.
If we are His Creation, then… what are we to do for all of his creations?
It’s simple: we continue to do His work by manifesting His love to everyone we meet.
For example, when the husband and bride become one, this love is the same as the Divine love God used to create us. The man and woman choose each other not out of lust, money, or emotional needs, but out of God’s love for each other.
Thereby, they create life, nurture each other into Christ, and together, continue to love others so that creation may continue, whether it be having or adopting a baby, feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, teaching the children, empathizing with those who mourn, showing mercy to others, and providing peace to estranged relationships.
Yes, God’s love is more than a feeling, but the embodiment of the Beatitudes encapsulated in an eternal covenant between the Creator and all of his Creation – a covenant that can never be broken.
If you can accept this truth, then the purpose of our lives is to create life, to preserve life in others, to inspire others to God’s divine plan, to give hope for those in despair, hungry or thirsty, and to preserve peace at all costs – instead of death.
We bear this responsibility as baptized Catholics.
Yes, I am describing Jesus.
So now that you know that you are created to create life, what are you to do moving forward?
For those who are married or have been married, you rely on the self-giving love that produced your children; you treat others with the self-giving love you gave to your spouse; and you recognize that all relationships, formal, informal, and even unwitting, are meant to bring you closer to Christ.
The litmus test is simple: if your relationship with anyone brings the two of you closer to Christ, then you know that your love is Divine, and you must act on it now, get out of your own way, and be the Mary that Jesus told Martha, “Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken from her.”
Therefore, my Theologians, we must be like our Creator and create love, as Christ did.
For if God is Love, then our path to being coheirs with Him is Love itself.