(Intro) Our first reading this morning tells of Peter and the Apostles telling the Sanhedrin, they must obey God rather than human beings. We know how easy it is to get caught in our own interests or those of our world today, so let us ask God’s forgiveness as we begin this Eucharist..
(After the gospel) Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we have in St Stanislaus an outstanding example of one who lived the gospel we just heard. Born in Poland in 1030 and “was later appointed Bishop of Cracow in 1072 and proved to be a successful reformer of his clergy, a keen preacher, and a generous patron of the poor in the city.”
At first he had the full support of the king, Boleslaus II but then fell out of favor with him because he asked the king “to reform his immoral behavior and stop the unjust way he was treating his subjects.” When the king refused, Stanislaus excommunicated him so that the king decided to do away with him. The king was caught in his earthly ways while Stanislaus sought to speak of the things of heaven as Jesus did in our gospel. The king himself ended up killing Stanislaus. The pope, Gregory VII put the whole country under an interdict until Boleslaus fell from power. St Stanislaus was later canonized in 1253 and became the patron of Poland because he testified to all that he had seen and heard in the Lord Jesus.