Today is August 14, the Memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr.
We read at today’s Mass, “While all Israel crossed over on dry ground, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD remained motionless on dry ground in the bed of the Jordan until the whole nation had completed the passage” (Jos 3:17).
Today’s reading from the Book of Joshua recounts a powerful moment: the Israelites, at long last, crossing into the Promised Land. As the priests stood holding the Ark of the Covenant in the middle of the Jordan River, the waters held back, and all Israel passed over on dry ground.
This moment in salvation history prefigures something greater. The Church Fathers saw the Ark of the Covenant as a symbol of the Blessed Virgin Mary — the vessel who bore the presence of God, the one who carries Christ to his people. Just as the ark led the Israelites safely through the waters, Mary leads us, too, into the fullness of life. That’s what we pray for every time we say the Hail Mary: “Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.”
It’s especially fitting that today we also honor St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Conventual Franciscan priest who gave his life at Auschwitz to save another prisoner. He died in a starvation cell with nine others, and his final words were a whispered Hail Mary. His trust in Mary gave him courage in the face of evil, serenity in the face of death.
‘A path to holiness’
Pope Benedict XVI once said, “It is moving to note how humble and trusting recourse to Our Lady is always a source of courage and serenity.” Marian devotion, so strong in St. Maximilian Kolbe, is not just a sentimental affection. It is a way of life, a path of holiness, a source of strength in suffering. Kolbe believed that Mary, the New Ark, would lead him safely through the trial of death into the Promised Land of eternal life.
Today’s memorial invites us to follow that same path: to let Mary guide us as the ark once led Israel, and to trust that her maternal love will lead us — now and at the hour of our death — to Jesus.
And today we also begin to prepare our hearts for tomorrow’s great feast: the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, when we celebrate Mary’s own passage into the fullness of glory.
Let us pray,
O God, who filled the Priest and Martyr Saint Maximilian Kolbe with a burning love for the Immaculate Virgin Mary and with zeal for souls and love of neighbor, graciously grant, through his intercession, that striving for your glory by eagerly serving others, we may be conformed, even until death, to your Son. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
