Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
We celebrate St. Maximilian as a solemnity because he, together with St. Francis, for us Franciscans of the Immaculate, is a particular reference point.  
St. Francis, of course, is the origin, the founder of the Franciscan Order.  
St. Maximilian, the one who most develops that Marian element present already in the charism of St. Francis.  
St. Maximilian, who develops that Marian presence in the rule, in the life, in the spirituality of the Franciscans, who does it so faithfully.  
St. Maximilian, who understands that it's from Our Lady that the Franciscan vocation comes, and it's only with her help that it can be lived most faithfully and lived to its total potential.  
You all know St. Maximilian very well, I know, but there's a special grace, nevertheless, in hearing his life again, just briefly, and hearing it in the context of the liturgical celebration, special graces go with that.  So we'll look at him just briefly, particularly, we'll look at what was on St. Maximilian's mind throughout his life.  
Because when he was a young boy, as you all know, his mom was concerned about him. He was not pleasing to her. His behavior, his conduct made his mother concerned—made her concerned, rather.  So she asked him, what will become of you? Raymond was his baptismal name. What will become of you? And that struck him, those words shook him up. What will become of me?  
As any child, he was carefree. But that question made him think, what will become of me? And he took that question to prayer because devotion to Our Lady is something that he learned from his own mom. His mother taught him to love Our Lady, taught him that good things come through Our Lady, taught him that God gives great graces through Our Lady.  So he turned to Our Lady and began to beg her to let him know what will become of him. From that moment on, his only concern was to have an answer to that question.  Mother Mary, what will become of me? What will happen with me? What is your will for me? And he prayed at the altar of Our Lady in his home parish, the parish of St. Matthew in Pabianice, Poland.  
And praying there, he received a special grace from Our Lady. She saw the sincerity of his pleading. She appeared to him, as you know, showed him the two crowns, asked him, do you accept them both, the white crown of purity, the red crown of martyrdom?  He said, I do accept them.  
Then his mom, who tells this story—his mom who heard the story from St. Maximilian and told it actually for the first time after St. Maximilian was already dead. He had died in Auschwitz.  The friars had notified the mother, your son has died as a martyr in Auschwitz. And she wrote a letter back and said, I knew this was coming because as a child, he told me that he had this vision of Our Lady, that he would receive the red crown of martyrdom.  
And that thought was always on his mind, she says. There was an extraordinary change when Our Lady appeared to him. His life turned around. And that thought of martyrdom was always on his mind and on every step of his life.  And on every occasion with a beaming face, he hinted at his desired death as a martyr. And so I too was prepared for it like Our Lady after the prophecy of Simeon.  
So when St. Maximilian turns to Our Lady, what is your will for me? What do you want me to do? Our Lady immediately responds, the two crowns. And St. Maximilian embraces Our Lady's will totally and makes it the thought of his life.  I must know the will of Our Lady. And once I know it, I must live it. And Our Lady will deliver on her promises, confessor and martyr.  
And amazingly, St. Maximilian was beatified first as a confessor (white), and then canonized as a martyr (red).  An amazing thing in the history of canonizations.  
And St. Maximilian experiences even more that not only is Our Lady not an obstacle—sometimes we emphasize that in speaking to people, like, you know, Catholic apologetics, showing people Our Lady is not an obstacle on the way to our Lord, et cetera.  And that's a legitimate question some people have, and we need to answer that. But there's so much more. Our Lady is not only not an obstacle, she's the channel through which God gives the biggest graces.  
He enters the Franciscan Order at the age of 13. He has some difficulties in his vocation, turns to Our Lady. She helps him to persevere and to persevere to the very end.  
In 1917, you know, he founds the Militia of the Immaculate, 1917. Today, it has four million members. It's grown.  
He founded a Marian friary in Poland, Niepokalanów. In the course of 10 years, it grew to have 600 friars and 200 candidates to the religious life.  
That almost doubled the size of the whole Conventual Franciscan Order. When St. Maximilian was entering, it had around 1,000 members. It was at the risk of extinction, at the risk of suppression. It wasn't doing well.  
When he came and consecrated himself and the friary to Our Lady, that one friary had 800—600 friars plus 200 candidates—800 members. That almost doubled the whole Order.  
He founded a periodical, “The Knight of the Immaculate”. It took miracles to get it going. It took miracles to keep it going. It became the biggest Catholic periodical in Poland.  
And he did the same thing in Japan. He went to Japan in 1930. Within a month, he was publishing a version of that magazine in Japanese. He didn't know Japanese. None of his friars knew Japanese. And yet, within a month, he was publishing this magazine in Japanese.  And within five years, it became the biggest Catholic magazine in Japan as well. Then he founded a seminary there. Explosive growth.  
Because that's what Our Lady does. She obtains from God the biggest graces. God gives through her the biggest graces.  St. Maximilian knew that. And he confidently begged for that, expected that, and received that from Our Lady.  
And then his life, of course, culminated in the biggest grace of all—perfect conformity to Our Lord.  Look at what consecration to Our Lady does. What is the fruit of consecration to Our Lady, right?  It takes us away from Our Lord? Oh, Maximilian died perfectly conformed to Jesus crucified.  In a concentration camp, he offers himself. 
He doesn't have to lay down his life for a fellow prisoner, Franciszek Gajowniczek. He chooses to lay down his life for him. He chooses to die in place of somebody else. And he dies in place of somebody else, saving others, leading them to Christ, reconciling them with God, teaching them devotion to Our Lady, making their deaths holy as well.  That's a life of perfect conformity to the Redeemer. And that's the fruit of his consecration to Our Lady. Because that is what Our Lady does. 
And that is why the devil absolutely hates devotion to Our Lady and never tires of putting into our minds, Ooh, be careful. Don't overdo it with devotion to Our Lady. Don't overdo it with love for Our Lady. Because what? Because she gives us the biggest graces, the greatest conformity to Our Lord.  
So, obviously, you know, he died in the starvation bunker. A fellow prisoner had the duty of removing the corpses from that starvation bunker. One of them, who then participated in the canonization process as a witness—as a witness says that on that August 14th, 1941, when I opened the iron door, he no longer lived.  But he looked as if he were alive. His face was radiant in an unusual manner. His eyes wide open and focused on one point. His whole figure in ecstasy. I will never forget this sight. His face, serene and beautiful, was radiant. 
After basically two weeks of dying of mainly dehydration, but starvation as well, all sorts of suffering, eyes wide open, concentrated on one point, wrapped in ecstasy.  And the postulator for the cause, a major biographer of St. Maximilian, with his Italian poetry says, we piously believe that the Heavenly Mother wanted to reward her most devoted son and ardent apostle in the hour of his sunset, appearing to him in the act of inviting him to her maternal embrace.  And that drawing his soul to herself, she wanted to leave her reverberation on the inanimate matter of his body, of her luminous whiteness.  
And to leave—and his pupils fixed, and that point, just intently looking at some place as he was dying, his face radiant.  She wanted to leave an impression, a sensitive sign of her appearance, and a symbol of eternal and unchangeable vision of God and glory. Wow, great Italian poetic way to say it.  
But the question now back to us. So this is what Our Lady does. This is what we know.  And like St. Maximilian, we should have that question in our mind. What will become of me? What will become of each and every one of us?  
Because our life can be an amazing story. There were many other martyrs that came out from St. Maximilian's friary. There were many other amazing friars that lived with him, all consecrated to Our Lady. And our life can be an amazing story.  Amazing to the degree that we let Our Lady write that story. She has power to transform us. She did that. As soon as St. Maximilian turned to her, that little boy became a little saint.  
His mom became concerned. What is going on with this little young man? Is he sick? What's going on? Our Lady can transform us, and we all know that.  But she can transform us even more, and more, and more if we only let her guide us, if only, like St. Maximilian, we beg to know.  And when Our Lady shows us, we accept what she wants, with confidence, with trust. If we do that, like for St. Maximilian, grace and holiness will surely follow.  
Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.