Today the church celebrates two modern martyrs who died placing their life in place of the life of another.
In the Episcopal liturgical calendar, the young American Civil Rights activist and martyr Jonathan Myrick Daniels was remembered today. In the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar the Polish priest Maximilian Kolbe, OFM Conv, who offered his life in place of another prisoner of the concentration camp he was in was remembered today.
Their lives here on earth ever so briefly overlapped and yet the impact of their example of not just hearing the Gospel, but listening to it and being transformed by it so as to put into action it’s message of inclusion, of the dignity of all of God’s children, of the power and purpose of God’s Divine Love, lives on and inspires us today.
St. Maximilian Kolbe, OFM Conv, was a Polish priest who was arrested in February 1941 by the German Gestapo. He was transferred to Auschwitz in May. In July of 1941, a prisoner escape prompted the deputy camp commander to choose 10 men to be starved to death in an underground bunker to deter further escapes. One of the men who had a wife and children cried out and Maximilian Kolbe volunteered to take his place. Kolbe died on this day in 1941.
Franciszek Gajowniczek, the Roman Catholic man whom Kolbe traded places with survived the war along with his wife. He once told a reporter “so long as he … has breath in his lungs, he would consider it his duty to tell people about the heroic act of love by Maximilian Kolbe.”
The collect from the Roman Missal prayed during Mass today reads:
O God, who filled the Priest and Martyr
Saint Maximilian Kolbe with a burning
love for the Immaculate Virgin Mary
and with a zeal for souls and love of neighbour,
graciously grant, through his intercession,
that, striving for your glory by eagerly serving others,
we may be conformed, even unto death, to your Son,
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen
Like St. Maximilian Kolbe, Jonathan Daniels listened to the gospel and had a zeal for souls. The gospel’s message of love of neighbor burned within him to respond to Dr. Martin Luther King’s call in the spring of 1965 for clergy from around the country to come to Selma and march from Selma to the state capital in Montgomery.
During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s many were killed while peacefully protesting segregationist repression in the South and supporting African-American citizens in exercising their constitutional right to vote.
One cannot talk about Daniels’ heroic deed that day of placing himself in harm’s way and pushing the intended victim of the blast to safety, without first recalling the many lives that were taken at the hands of those who feared integration and sought to preserve the oppression, bigotry, and hatred of a segregated South. Among those murdered during this terrible time in our history include:
Medger Evers – June 12, 1963
James Chaney – June 21, 1964
Michael Schwermer – June 21, 1964
Andrew Goodman – June 21, 1964
Lemuel Penn – July 11, 1964
Jimmie Lee Jackson – February 26, 1965
Rev. James Reeb – March 11, 1965
Viola Liuzzo – March 25, 1965
Jonathan Myrick Daniels – August 20, 1965
Daniels came to Selma in March of 1965. He and his classmate from seminary, Judith Upham, not only participated in the marches and protests for Civil Rights and worked on registering voters in Lowndes Country, but were instrumental in integrating an Episcopal Parish in Selma.
On this day, exactly 50 years ago, Daniels was with a group who were arrested in Fort Deposit, AL, and released several days later on August 20th. He was murdered by Tom Coleman as some members of the group attempted to enter a store to buy sodas. Jonathan saw Coleman level his gun at one of the African-American students and pushed her out of the way and caught the full blast of the shotgun.
Both St. Maximilian and St. Jonathan are modern day martyrs who exemplify what it means to live and walk the life of a Christian. Inspired by the gospel message of to love our neighbor as ourselves, they lost their lives.
The collect prayed today in the Episcopal Church was:
O God of justice and compassion, you put down the proud and mighty from their place, and lift up the poor and the afflicted: we give you thanks for your faithful witness Jonathan Myrick Daniels, who, in the midst of injustice and violence, risked and gave his life for another; and we pray that we, following his example, may make no peace with oppression; through Jesus Christ the just one, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
May we strive for a burning zeal for souls and love of neighbor and never make peace with oppression.
St. Maximilian and St. Jonathan, pray for us.
Medger, James, Michael, Andrew, Lemuel, Jimmie, Rev. James, and Viola, may the sacrifice and example each of you made never be forgotten. May that zeal for souls and love of neighbor each of you exemplified grow in our hearts and lives and grow in the lives of those we touch. Amen.
May those who acted out of fear and hatred and were culpable for the deaths of these blessed souls, be touched by God’s eternal Divine Love and know, rest in and reflect that great love and peace upon the world. Amen.
Originally published August 14, 2015