Remembering Maximilian Kolbe

Today Jesus talks about what is called fraternal correction. He says, ''If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone between your two selves.'' If he listens all is well, however that is the problem. Many people get angry when criticized and will not believe that they are doing wrong. If what they are doing is a serious offence within the community, then they do need to be questioned by that community, but if their way of acting just annoys me, whose problem is it? As writer Heather King says, ''In my pride, I'm either going to change, convince or manipulate you into treating me the way I want to be treated. Give that person who doesn't really want to change time, let him or her know that you love them and leave it at that.'' On the other hand, today we have an example of what we could call ''Fraternal self-giving ''. St Maximilian Kolbe was a Franciscan who saved some 2,000 to 3,000 people from the Nazis.He was sent to Auschwitz death camp and volunteered to take the place of a man with a family who was condemned to death. He was left to die of starvation but after two weeks he was still alive encouraging the other prisoners. He was killed by lethal injection When he was canonized in 1982, the man whose life he saved was present. We are not called to die as he did but we can cease to be obstacles in the lives of others encouraging them to discover and live out their own dreams.