Weekend Reading - To Be Poor - Maximillian and Matthew

"It is very easy to get drunk with hate.  Hate is like the glass of whisky which is given to the soldiers before a bayonet charge.  Whisky stimulates but does not nourish.

Hate is not creative, only love is creative.   These sufferings will not cause us to crumble but will help us, more and more, to become stronger.  They are necessary—together with the sacrifices of others—so that the ones who come after us may be happy.”

Maximilian Kolbe, Auschwitz


“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’

Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’  And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’

Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Matthew 25:31-46

Caravaggio, The Calling of Matthew, the Tax Collector

"Kolbe looked directly and intently into the eyes of those entering the cell. Those eyes of his were always strangely penetrating. The SS men couldn’t stand his glance, and used to yell at him, Schau auf die erde, nicht auf uns!   Kolbe was a psychic trauma, a shock for the SS men who had to bear his look, a look that hungered not for bread, but to liberate them from evil."

Bruno Borgowiec, fellow prisoner at Auschwitz


“If any would come after me, let them deny themselves, and take up their cross, and follow me. For whoever would save their life will lose it,  but whoever loses their life, for my sake, will find it. For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul?"

Matthew 16:24-26


"Those among the rich who are not, in the rigorous sense, damned, can understand poverty, because they are poor themselves, after a fashion; but they cannot understand destitution.   Capable of giving alms, perhaps, but incapable of stripping themselves bare, they will be moved, to the sound of beautiful music, at Jesus’s sufferings, but His Cross, the reality of His Cross, will horrify them. They want it all out of gold, bathed in light, costly and of little weight; pleasant to see, hanging from a woman’s beautiful throat."

In the end, the only real tragedy is not to have been a saint."

Léon Bloy, La Femme pauvre


"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Matthew 5:3

Angels of Light

Even in times of inhuman ugliness and epic greed, so pervasive as to seem to overwhelm us, it is good to remember that love is moving, always moving among us.   And that even today we are called, by a word or nod of a stranger, or a sudden impulse from our own hearts,  to forsake the dark powers of this world, and accept His will as our own, and thereby reaffirm life.

I have often highlighted such as these here on these pages, because they are a light for us in troubled times.

The world and its servants will hate them, and slander them, these angels of light.  Because they mark out for us a holy and more certain path, with a powerful light that shines down through even the darkest corridors of history.

"Upon her recent passing at the age of 76, I took the opportunity to reread Bubby's memoirs.  In four different instances, my grandmother had stood—amid the smoke of the crematoriums, the barking dogs, the trampling boots and swinging clubs—on the infamous selection line at the head of which Mengele and his minions stood, pointing left and right, sentencing some to back-breaking labor, and sending others to the gas chambers. 

In each of those instances, somebody would come along and say or do something that would change Bubby's fate from certain death to tenuous life. In one such incident, she already had been sent to the line of those marked for death when a man appeared as if from nowhere, physically removed her from that line and shoved her into the other, without saying a word.

Indeed, the miracles and the mysteries of the events of those days abound along with the horrors and the tragedies. In contrast to the vile actions of the 'Angel of Death' were the noble and heroic actions of many 'Angels of Life' who stood ready to risk their own lives for the sake of saving that of a stranger.

It is thanks in no small part to 'angels' like these, who stepped out from behind their own misery and grief to come to the aid of others, that generations now live on to tell the story. How clearly we see the infinite ripple effects of single acts of kindness and compassion, even if accomplished in a split second."

Yossi Refson, Angels of Light


"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread.  They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”

Viktor E. Frankl


“If you can feel that staying human is worth while, even when it can't have any practical result whatsoever, you've beaten them.”

George Orwell


"Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.  We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love one another.  Anyone who does not love is in thrall to death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer.  And you know that no murderer has life eternal residing in him.

This is how we know what love is: the Lord laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.  If anyone has material plenty and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?  Little children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth."

1 John 3:13-18

"Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish Franciscan friar, provided shelter to refugees from Greater Poland, including 2,000 Jews whom he hid from Nazi persecution in his friary in Niepokalanów. He was also active as a radio amateur, with Polish call letters SP3RN, vilifying Nazi activities through his reports.

On February 17, 1941 Kolbe was arrested by the German Gestapo and imprisoned in the Pawiak prison, and on May 25 was transferred to Auschwitz I as prisoner #16670.

In July 1941 a man from Kolbe’s barracks vanished, prompting SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch, the deputy camp commander, to pick 10 men from the same barracks to be starved to death in Block 13 (notorious for torture), in order to deter further escape attempts. One of the selected men, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out, lamenting his family ["My poor wife! My poor children! What will they do?"], and Kolbe volunteered to take his place.

During the time in the cell he led the men in songs and prayer. After three weeks of dehydration and starvation, only Kolbe and three others were still alive. Finally he was murdered with an injection of carbolic acid [14 August 1941] ...

Kolbe is one of ten 20th-century martyrs from across the world who are depicted in statues above the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey, London."

Jewish Virtual Library, Maximilian Kolbe


“No one in the world can change Truth. What we can do and and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it. The real conflict is the inner conflict. Beyond armies of occupation and the catacombs of extermination camps, there are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love. And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we are ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves?”

Maximilian Kolbe

Even in your own small and simple ways, seemingly unnoticed, walk with the angels, for His sake, and for your own.

Remember These Words For the Time to Come

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.  You will know them by their fruits.  Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles."

Nor will love be seen coming from the hearts of those who are fallen into wickedness:  they are the fruit of hate, deceit, greed, fear, pride, possession, and aggression.  And they will not only forsake love by washing their hands of it,  they will eventually come to condemn it, unless they relent from their folly, and thereby condemn themselves.
 

For all the people of God, love is the touchstone of our faith, the way to know if what we believe is with Him, or with something else; if we are walking with Him, or with something else; if the one who speaks is speaking for Him, or for something else; if we are keeping Him in our hearts, or something else; if we love Him, or ourselves, or something else.

Love does not speak with hate or fear or derision, but with a fullness of existence.  And that love is ridiculed and trampled, and can only be counterfeited but never achieved, by that which is opposed to His creation.

When you are in doubt or confusion about what is true and what is false, look for the light of love.  This is the hallmark of the spirit.   And if it is not there, if it is wrapped in the hardness of pride disguised even as an elaborate ritual observance and pharisaical pride, then you will know what it truly is.  It is a sin against the spirit. 

Love is not easy; it is not a natural state. It seems weak and foolish, and even despicable to the fallen and the world. 

It is a disposition of the mind and the heart, and an act of acceptance of grace not by but through the will. It is a shield against temptation. It is a habit of acting and looking at things, that can become easier and more comfortable as we carry that yoke or restraint on our weaker nature and our harsher emotions. Over time that yoke becomes lighter, and a light to steady us in life's darker moments.

 

But it is rarely easy or natural, which makes it the stuff of the brave, of the spiritually and emotionally hardy, of God's knights.  The way of the world, of anger and oppression, is the easy path not of the truly human, but of darker things.

 

So we must remember we are sinners, but reaching out to the eternal, and thereby attempting great things, if but clumsily and with a number falls like the apostle himself.

This is how the people of God may guide themselves and their own actions along the way. If there is no love evident in the words and the heart, then the words and the actions are not of God, but of something else.

Love is not what we do, but how we do what we do. Love is found in the most ordinary things, not in grand gestures and elaborate mannerisms, but in the small daily acts of kindness and fellowship, done lovingly and with care, for His sake.   It is how we carry our cross, not in front of a cheering crowd, but in the quiet moments, and the little things, while walking with Him.

We do not need to hate and reject the world, and despise and subdue His creation. They are a gift from God, to which we bring our own good use and order in His name.  And if we are wise, with our reverent wonder. We can work with His gifts lovingly, and not abuse them from excess and greed.

 

It is not the world that is a source of evil, but the willfulness of our hearts, made hard with pride. Only love is creative and productive.  Only love is accepting and uplifting, able to bring all things forward to His plan and make them new.  Love consecrates, while sin desecrates and destroys in its lust for possession and the will to power.

Obviously this law of love is applicable to all people, but is addressed particularly here to those who hearts have been already touched, in a time of spiritual wickedness, and dark powers in high places. 

 

God is the essence of all existence, which is His love.  The pity for those who would otherwise be faithful, then, is not to love.

"If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the fullness comes, the partial will come to an end.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love."