Ordinary 11

The Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Exodus 19:2-6a; Psalm 100; Roman 5:6-11; Matthew 9:36 – 10:8

Franciszek Gajowniczek.

I expect not a household name to you. Gajowniczek was a Polish army sergeant who was captured during the 1939 invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany. In October 1940 he was transferred to the Auschwitz concentration camp. When a prisoner escaped from the camp, the deputy camp commander selected ten men to be starved to death to deter further escape attempts. When his name was called out, Franciszek, one of the ten men, cried out, “My wife! My children!”. That is when Franciscan priest, Maximillian Maria Kolbe stepped forward and volunteered to die in his place.

Paul remarks that giving up your life for another person is almost unimaginable, although may be for a particularly good person, it might make some sense.

What do you think about dying for someone who is not good? Yet that is what Jesus did for us. Listen intently. while we were still helpless and ungodly – while we were still sinners – while we were enemies,. Christ died for us before we had any goodness. Thus the refrain. Christ died at the appointed time.Christ died for us.We were reconciled to God through the death of his Son.

Why did Jesus die for us without any hint of us acknowledging our breaking of the relationship and expressing sorrow for what we did?

Consider. Adam and Eve expressed no sorrow in the garden, yet God promised redemption. Cain expressed no sorrow, only offering excuses, yet God placed a mark on Cain to protect him.

Why did Jesus die for us? Because it was to show the depth of his love for us who are helpless.

Was Franciszek worthy of Kolbe’s self–sacrifice? Of the ten men, was he somehow more deserving? Was he the only man with a wife and children? We will never know the answer to those questions.

In a similar manner…How many Christians have anguished over their relationship with God rather than graciously responding with gratitude to God’s love? How many of us think God’s love is contingent on something we must first do or be? How many of us think we need to earn salvation rather than accepting the free gift?

God chose in Christ to die for us so that our relationship with God might be healed and restored. That is how much God cares for us. Our belief in the Holy Trinity expresses that the essence of God is to be in relationship, Father, Son and Spirit. Thus, God has chosen not to let anything, even our sinfulness, to become an obstacle to the relationship between God and humanity, between God and you and me.

Paul writes further on in this letter, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers,nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” _{[Romans 8:38-39]}.

In other words, nothing can separate from God, not even our inability to comprehend or properly respond and accept God’s choice for our salvation.

As Maximilian Kolbe’s choice of self–sacrifice gave us a glimpse into God’s free choice and love for us, Franciszek Gajowniczek offers us a path on how we are to respond.

On 17 October 1971, Gajowniczek was present when Maximilian Kolbe was beatified for his martyrdom. In 1972, Time magazine reported that over 150,000 people made a pilgrimage to Auschwitz to honor the anniversary of Kolbe’s beatification. One of the first to speak was Gajowniczek, who declared, “I want to express my thanks for the gift of life.”

The Lord be with you. And with your spirit.

Lift up your hearts.      We life them up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks…     It is right and just.

It is truly right and just…