All gave some... some gave all.

My peeps,

On my grandfather's tombstone there is an inscription written: "All gave some, some gave all." That short line has so much meaning to it. One thing it makes me do is question, "What is it that I am doing with my life; the life that God has given me?" 

Am I giving some, or am I giving all? I strongly believe, and I try to emphasize this whenever I speak to people about the truth of life, that when we die and meet our Maker, He will ask us what we have done with our lives that He has given us. And at that point we will be held accountable. This may not be the most uplifting message, but it is truth. We will die. We will be asked what we have done with our lives. We will be held accountable. 

One person, whose feast day we celebrate today, is Saint Maximilian Kolbe. This is the example of a man who gave all. He gave in the ultimate way, by laying down his life.

A little background on this man:

Maximilian was born in 1894 in Poland and became a Franciscan. He contracted tuberculosis and, though he recovered, he remained frail all his life. Before his ordination as a priest, Maximilian founded the Immaculata Movement devoted to Our Lady. After receiving a doctorate in theology, he spread the Movement through a magazine entitled "The Knight of the Immaculata" and helped form a community of 800 men, the largest in the world.

Maximilian went to Japan where he built a comparable monastery and then on to India 

where he furthered the Movement. In 1936 he returned home because of ill health. After the Nazi invasion in 1939, he was imprisoned and released for a time. But in 1941 he was arrested again and sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz.

On July 31, 1941, in reprisal for one prisoner's escape, ten men were chosen to die. One of the men cried out, “I have am a husband, and I have a family!” Father Kolbe heroically offered himself in place of the young husband and father. All but four men (including Father Kolbe) died after three weeks of starvation and dehydration. Father Kolbe finally put to death by lethal injection. 

Saint Maximilian Kolbe... pray for us...