June 7

Zbigniew Strzałkowski was born on 3 July 1958 in Tarnów. He professed simple vows in the Order of Friars Minor Conventual on 2 September 1980 and on 7 June 1986 he was ordained a priest. Having worked as a teacher in a minor seminary in Legnica, he left for Peru as a missionary. Michael (Michał) Tomaszek was born on 23 September 1960 in Łękawica. He professed simple vows in the Order of Friars Minor Conventual on 1 September 1981 and on 23 May 1987 he was ordained a priest. Having worked as a pastor in Pieńsko, he left for Peru as a missionary.

Both of them worked in the large Pariacoto parish (the Diocese of Chimbote), edifying a Franciscan community and serving the people. Visiting the settlements of the Andes, they were selflessly dedicated to pastoral and charitable service. On the evening of August 9, 1991, they were murdered by communist guerrillas.

Beloved Brothers and Sisters, we are all united in the single community of God, in the single priesthood of Christ, by single faith, by the same religious vows.

Joy is an emotion and a state that one cannot contain, that needs to be expressed, that demands to be shared with others. Christ’s priesthood brings freedom to man and to the world, the freedom from sin. It brings hope, the hope of eternal happiness. These values spring from Christ’s cross to man, to Christians, because Christ is the only high Priest. Priests, who through generations have marked the history of mankind on earth, are those on whom rests the power of Christ’s priesthood. It is through them that Christ is present in the lives of men and in the history of the world. Each priest has a share in what Christ lived; each priest, together with his Master, experiences what he went through for our salvation. Turning the pages of the Gospel, listening to the inspired word read out in church, we can see Christ the Priest who is lonely, because bringing love to man, he remained lonely. While bringing the blessing to the chosen nation and to entire mankind, he encountered lack of understanding. The only one to understand him was his heavenly Father. Christ the Priest came to make a sacrifice because of the love of the Father and the love of man. This is the highest selfless sacrifice of oneself. Christ the Priest, preaching the Good News, experienced toil and fatigue. And this what every priest, who embraces Christ’s priesthood, will experience, when he decides to follow in his Master footsteps.

What is most important in the religious life under the guidance of Saint Francis is his look on priesthood, his attitude toward priesthood and priests. In his instructions for brothers he said explicitly that who we in fact venerate in the person of a priest is Christ present among people. Christ stands among us in the person of a priest, he stands among us to preach the Good News through the mouth of a priest, to tell us, the fainthearted, “Courage!;” to tell us, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest;” to tell each of us, doubting and broken, “My grace is sufficient for you.”