Monday, August 14, 2006

Still Good Enough

A friend of mine is traveling by air. The new security measures have changed the way he needs to prepare and the way he is to pack. My friend's is a trip of a long duration. In the face of the upset this has caused and the potential dangers everywhere, my friend concluded today's email to me with these words: "The world is still good enough."

That is completely correct! The Incarnation of God in Jesus by their Spirit quiets all challenges to the contrary. The Creator chose not only to live as a human being in every way; the Creator also chose to die a human death.

Today the Church remembers one of its priest-martyrs, Maximillian Kolbe. Focused by deep devotion to the Virgin Mary, Fr. Kolbe was deeply dedicated to the Christian faith. His supreme sacrifice of charity crowned his dedication on this day in 1941 when Fr. Kolbe offered his life in place of another prisoner at Auschwitz.

Auschwitz, and all the Nazi death-camps, were terribly cruel and inhuman places. At the same time God was present--in ways our minds fail to grasp--because Fr. Kolbe and others offered their lives for each other. Survivors offered goodnesses, too, though unaware of it. Indeed, "the world is still good enough."

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