Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
But you, son of man, hear me when I speak to you and do not rebel like this rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you. (Ezekiel 2:8, NABRE)
He was still a child when the Blessed Virgin put the choice before him: Would Raymond Kolbe accept a white crown for purity, or a red one for martyrdom? He answered that he would accept them both.
And so he did.
When he was thirteen, Raymond and an older brother entered a Franciscan seminary. When he was seventeen, he took his first 
vows… and the name Maximilian. He studied in Rome and spent time in China, Japan, and India before returning to Poland in 1936. The Gestapo arrested him in February 1941, and three months later, he became prisoner 16670 at Auschwitz.
But while he might have been a number to his captors, he was a source of comfort to his fellow prisoners, and salvation to one in particular. When Franciszek Gajowniczek cried out in agony when he was selected as one of ten men to starve to death, Maximilian offered to take his place. Two weeks later, Maximilian was the only one of the ten still fully conscious. He raised his arm and prayed when the camp executioner came to give him a lethal injection so the cell could be cleared for others.
The white crown for purity. The red crown for martyrdom. Maximilian accepted them. He wore them with humility and obedience to the earthly end. He didn’t rebel, didn’t complain to other prisoners about the unfairness of it all and wondering what would have happened if he’d been allowed to stay in Asia. He ministered where he was… and offered himself in Christ’s name. He ate what was given to him, as Ezekiel puts it in today’s first reading, and trusted in the Lord’s promise. May we have the faith to accept the crowns being placed before us.
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