Solidarity

“Suppose a man has a hundred sheep and one of them strays; will he not go in search of the stray?”

Jesus asks a question about the good shepherd who lost a sheep: “Will he not leave the ninety-nine?” In real life the answer might be “No.” Doesn’t the shepherd going in search of the stray put the ninety-nine at risk? Wouldn’t it be more logical for him to take care of them? Should he leave all those others behind because one got lost? Isn’t leaving those ninety-nine not only absurd, but even irresponsible?

It is Saint Augustine who recommends that we should have a closer look at numbers when we read the Bible. Numbers have a deep meaning. Even for us 100 is a special number. It indicates completeness. It is a rounded-off number. It is a serious matter when such a whole number is broken. It only takes one to break it. So, in a way, it doesn’t even matter whether one is missing, or sixteen, or thirty-four. Losing even one means losing completeness. Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan writes in his Testimony of Hope: "If Jesus would have had to take a mathematics exam, he might have failed. For him, one is equal to ninety-nine—and perhaps more! Who could ever accept this? But his mercy reaches from generation to generation. When it is a matter of saving the lost sheep, Jesus does not become discouraged by any risk or by any effort. We can contemplate his actions, full of mercy, when he sits beside Jacob's well and speaks with the Samaritan woman, or when he wishes to dine at the house of Zaccheus! What simplicity that knows no calculations, what love for sinners!"

Humanity, God’s flock, belongs together like the number 100. If even one is lost or marginalized, we are no longer complete. That is why Jesus came to find the lost and marginalized one. The life and especially the martyr's death of St Maximilian Mary Kolbe, Franciscan, is a case in point. His magnanimous offer in saving a prisoner stands out to say that even one is important, every one is important in God's sight. Maximilian becomes God's fragrant and beautiful instrument.

In 1941 Maximilian was arrested and sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz, where he helped and supported the inmates. In August of that year a prisoner escaped, and in reprisal the authorities were choosing ten people to die by starvation. One of the men had a family, and Maximilian Kolbe offered to take his place. The offer was accepted, and he spent his last days comforting his fellow prisoners. The man he saved was present at his canonization.

Maximilian Kolbe’s martyrdom, though certainly heroic, might be the least important thing about him. He was able to offer his life because of who he was – or, rather, because of who he had become. Being—or becoming—as more important than doing; or more precisely, one's doing or one's actions is always an overflow of one's being. We are more human "beings" or human "becomings" but never human "doings." To imitate St Maximilian Kolbe requires no heroism, no special gifts, but surely perseverance, prayer, and perhaps a lot of determination.