Solemn Concelebration in the City of the Immaculate (18 June 1983)

On Saturday, 18 June 1983, the Holy Father presided at a Solemn Concelebration of Holy Mass at Niepokalanów, the "City of the Immaculate," founded by Saint Maximilian Kolbe, on the Esplanade of the Basilica of the Immaculate. In his homily the Pope reflected on the life and martyrdom of Saint Maximilian, canonized by the same Pope in the previous year. 

1. Dear Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Priests, Men and Women Religious, you especially, Sons and Daughters of Saint Francis, and all of you, beloved Compatriots, Brothers and Sisters!

On the 10th of October last year, I was given the honor of raising to the altars of the Universal Church the saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe, son of the Polish Land.

That was an unusual canonization. Poles also came to it, from Poland and from emigration, in quite large numbers. But they constituted only a minority of that great crowd of pilgrims , who that Sunday filled Saint Peter's Square. They certainly came from Rome and all of Italy, but also in considerable numbers from Germany and other European countries, as well as from other continents, in particular from Japan, which perennially united its heart with the Knight of the Immaculate. It was clearly warned that the proclamation as a saint, by the Church, of Father Maximilian reached a nerve in the sensitivity of the man of our times . Therefore, the expectation of such canonization was common, and the participation confirmed this expectation.

Reflecting on the reasons, it can be said that Maximilian Kolbe, through his death in the concentration camp, in the "hunger cell", confirmed in a particularly eloquent way the drama of humanity in the 20th century. However, the deepest and most consistent reason seems to be the fact that in this priest-martyr the central truth of the Gospel became particularly transparent : the truth about the strength of love.

2. "No one has greater love than he who lays down his life for his friends" ( Jn . 15, 13): says Jesus, when saying goodbye to the apostles in the upper room, before going to his passion and death . "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers", his Master John the Apostle later repeated in his first Epistle (3, 14). And he will conclude: "By this we know charity: He (Jesus) laid down His life for us , and we must lay down our lives for our brothers" ( ibid . v. 16).

Exactly this truth of the Gospel becomes transparent in a particular way, through the act carried out in Oswiecim by Father Maximilian Kolbe. It can be said that the most perfect model that the Redeemer of the world left us, was assumed in that act with total heroism and also with enormous simplicity . Father Maximilian leaves the line, to be accepted as a candidate for the "hunger cell", in place of Franciszek Gajowniczek: he makes the decision, in which the maturity of his love and the strength of the Holy Spirit are manifested at the same time, and put this evangelical decision into practice to the core: he gives his life for a brother.

This happens in the field of death, in a place where more than four million people of different nations, languages, religions and races have suffered death. Maximilian Kolbe also suffered death: in the end, he was given the blow of clemency with a deadly injection. However, in this death a spiritual victory over death was manifested at the same time , similar to that which occurred on Calvary. And therefore he "did not suffer" death, but " gave down his life " — for a brother. Herein lies the moral victory over death. "To give one's life for a brother" means to become, in some way, a minister of one's own death.

3. Maximilian Kolbe was a minister : he was, in fact, a priest, the son of Saint Francis. Every day he celebrated in a sacramental way the mystery of Christ's redeeming death on the Cross. He often repeated these words from the Psalm, recalled in today's liturgy:

"What can I repay the Lord / For all the benefits he has done me? / I will take the cup of salvation / And I will call on the name of the Lord" ( Ps . 115/116, 12-13).

And so. Every day he drank the cup of the new and eternal Covenant, in which, under the species of wine, the Blood of the Redeemer is sacramentally "shed" for the remission of sins. With the mystery of the Eucharistic Cup he matured in it that hour of decision in Oswiecim : "Shall I not drink the cup that My Father gave Me?" ( John 18, 11). And he drank, he drank this cup to the end, to testify before the world that love is stronger than death . The world needs this testimony, to free itself from the bonds of that civilization of death which, especially in some moments of the present era, shows its threatening face.

4. In the event of Oswiecim is inscribed that fundamental dialogue, which allows man to overcome the horror of the civilization of death, and daily allows him to overcome the different weights of temporality. And this is man's dialogue with God :

"What can I repay the Lord?... / I am, Lord, Your servant, / Your servant and the son of Your servant" ( Ps . 115/116, 12.16).

Thus says the man, minister of the daily Eucharist, the man minister of his own death in the field of Oswiecim. So says the man. This is a word that sums up his entire life.

And God responds with the words of the Book of Wisdom. Here are the words that close God’s response:

"But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will touch them... For God, who tested them, found them worthy of Himself. He tested them like gold in the furnace and accepted them as a burnt offering" ( Wisdom . 3, 1.5-6).

Is it truly so? Truly "no torment touched" Father Maximilian? The man we venerate precisely as a martyr?

The reality of death by martyrdom is always a torment; however, the secret of that death is the fact that God is greater than the torment . Great is the trial of suffering, that "tasting like gold in the furnace"; however, stronger than the test is love, that is, stronger is grace . "The love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" ( Rom . 5:5).

Thus, therefore, a martyr stands before us: Maximilian Kolbe — minister of death itself — strong in his torment, even stronger in his love, to which he was faithful, in which he grew throughout his life, in which he matured in Oswiecim field. Maximilian Kolbe: a unique witness to Christ's victory over death. A unique witness to the Resurrection .

5. "I am, Lord, Your servant / Your servant and the son of Your servant ...".

That maturation in love, which filled Father Maximilian's entire life and was definitively realized on Polish land through the act of Oswiecim, that maturation was in a special way united with the immaculate Servant of the Lord .

He was, like few others, a spiritual son of "Your servant". From the first years of his youth he experienced his spiritual motherhood : that is, the motherhood that was established on Calvary, at the foot of the Cross of Christ, when Mary accepted Christ's first disciple as her son.

Maximilian Kolbe, like few others, was penetrated by the mystery of Mary's divine election . Her heart and her thoughts focused in particular on that "new beginning", which was in the history of humanity — through the work of the Redeemer — the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of his earthly incarnation. "What Mother means - he wrote - we know, but Mother of God we cannot understand it with the intellect, with the limited mind. Only God himself perfectly understands what 'Immaculate' means... The Immaculate Conception is full of mysteries comforters" (M. Kolbe, Letter of April 12, 1933 ).

Maximilian Kolbe penetrated this mystery in a particularly deep, particularly synthetic way: not in the abstract: but through the living context of God-Trinity , God who is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and through the living context of God's salvific designs about the world. Here are his words again: "Let us seek more and more, every day to get closer to the Immaculate; in this way we will get closer and closer to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, to God the Father, to the entire Holy Trinity, because no creature is as close to God as the Immaculate One. In this way we will also bring all those close to our hearts closer to the Immaculate One and the Good God" (M. Kolbe, Letter from Nagasaki, April 6, 1934 ).

All of Father Maximilian Kolbe's apostolic initiatives testify that the mystery of the Immaculate Conception was at the center of his consciousness . Both the "Militia of the Immaculada" and the "Knight of the Immaculada" bear witness to this. This testifies to the Japanese "City of the Immaculate" (Mugenzoi no Sono). Finally, our Polish "Niepokalanów" testifies to this.

6. It is good that we gathered here precisely after the canonization of Father Maximilian. Previously, after his beatification, a great assembly in our homeland took place in Oswiecim: it was an emotional ceremony, Oswiecim is, in fact, the place where he "gave his life for a brother". Today we are here in Niepokalanów, and Niepokalanów tells us of the discovery of the "new beginning" of God's humanity. Niepokalanów is the place where, in continuous obedience to the Spirit of Truth, following the example of the Immaculate, man formed himself day by day, so that the saint surpassed man not only in terms of life and apostolate, but also due to a martyr's death "for his brother".

7. I know that many representatives of the countryside, Polish farmers, are taking part in today's assembly.

Present here — as I was informed — are members of the "pastoral communities of farmers who work for the renewal of the countryside in union with the Church". Some of you visited me, during my illness, at the "Gemelli" polyclinic in Rome; Today we meet in prayer in this land of Francis and Maximilian.

I know that you are encouraged by your concern for renewing the best cultural traditions of the countryside, for Christian life in reciprocal love, for perfection through common prayer; I know that you form circles to help each other; you participate in spiritual exercises; you complete your instruction; you study the social doctrine of the Church. In this way, you wish to discover your particular mission again; You want to restore the dignity that belongs to the work in the fields and in the toil of this work you find joy.

Allow me to address the words of a great statesman, representative of the Polish countryside. Vicente Witos:

"The farmer preserved in the worst moments the land, the religion, the nationality. These three values ​​provided the basis for the creation of the State. Without them we could not have it. Where the farmer set foot, there remained the foundation of the future renaissance" (Congress in Wierzchoslawice, 1928).

Remain in God's love!

Christ, who called Himself the true vine, of Himself, of His Father, said He is the vinedresser. Remain in Christ and bear much fruit, in Him we can do everything (cf. Jn 15:1-15).

Be the culture of God!

And remain in the love of your land; of this mother and nurturing land.

The Creator has entrusted to you in a particular way all the seed-bearing herbs that exist on the surface of the earth, and all the fruit trees that produce seed, so that they may serve as food for everyone (cf. Gen. 1, 29).

This land produces "thorns and thistles", but thanks to your work it must produce food, give bread to man. This is a particular source of the dignity of field work, of your dignity.

8. Our current assembly in Niepokalanów evokes historical categories in my memory.

Once, in the thirteenth century, in 1253, the Poles reached the canonization of the first son of their land, who was also pastor of the See of Krakow. The canonization of Saint Stanislaus took place in Assisi: his compatriots, however, and in particular the Princes of the Piast dynasty, who then ruled Poland, felt the need to gather in Krakow to experience in their own land the Easter joy of the elevation of a Compatriot to the glory of the altars of the universal church: the joy of the birth of a Saint for his homeland. They saw in him a sign of divine Providence for this land. They saw in him their patron saint and mediator with God. They linked to him their hopes for a better future for the country, which at the time found itself in a difficult situation as a result of the division into duchies. From the legend that said that the body of Stanislaus, dismembered during his death, would recover itself, the hope was born that the Poland of the Piasts would one day overcome the dynastic division into duchies and would return, as a state, to unity. . The continuation of the story, starting with Ladisláu o Breve, confirmed this hope.

9. Today in Niepokalanów, at the center of our celebration in the homeland — after the canonization — is Saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe: the first saint of the Polish lineage at the beginning of the second Millennium. The first and second millenniums of Poland and Christianity in Poland meet in a profound symbol . Is the patron saint of Poland at the time the patron saint... only of Poland? Isn't it so before all our difficult century? Yes, but because he is a son of this land, who participated in its trials, its sufferings and its hopes; therefore, in a certain way, particular is the Patron Saint of Poland.

Precisely from this Poland, which since the end of the 18th century began to be condemned to death: to partitions, deportations, concentration camps, starvation cells. And when, after 120 years, it had returned to a state of independence, the year 1939 was waited to repeat this death sentence once again. In fact, precisely from the center of these struggles between the life and death of the country comes the work of Saint Maximilian in Oswiècim. Mors et vita duello conflixere mirando ("they duel strong and stronger: it is life that faces death"), as we read in the Easter Sequence. The son of the Polish land, who died on his Calvary, in the cell of death from hunger, "giving his life for a brother", returns to us in the glory of holiness. Love is stronger than death .

Once upon a time, in the Middle Ages, the legend of Saint Stanislaus was born. Our times, our century will not create the legend of Saint Maximilian. The eloquence of simple facts is quite strong , that is, the testimony of life and martyrdom. It is necessary to accept the eloquence of these almost contemporary facts in Polish life. It is necessary to build the future of man, of the family, of the nation from them.

What does it mean to say that love is stronger than death? It also means: " Do not let yourself be overcome by evil; rather overcome evil with good ", according to the words of Saint Paul ( Rom . 12, 21). These words translate the truth about the act, carried out in Oswiècim by Father Maximilian, in different dimensions: in the dimension of daily life and also in the dimension of the time, in the dimension of the difficult historical moment, in the dimension of the 20th century, and perhaps also in that of times to come.

11. Gathered in Niepokalanów for the great national gratitude after the elevation to the glory of the altars of Saint Maximilian Mary — our compatriot, the witness of our difficult century, the martyr, the first saint of the Polish race in the second Millennium —, we wish enrich the Polish Christian heritage with the moving eloquence of the act he performed in Oswiècim: "Do not allow yourself to be overcome by evil; but rather overcome evil with good".

It is an evangelical program:

A difficult but possible program.

An indispensable program.

Heading from here on a pilgrimage to Jasna Góra, I will ask the Queen of Poland and Mother of all Poles, to give us, following the example of Saint Maximilian, the strength of spirit necessary to undertake this program. In order to integrate into the Polish spiritual heritage the eloquence of the life and death of the Knight of the Immaculate. So be it.

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