Memorial: St. Boniface \u2013 Bishop and Martyr<\/em><\/p>\n (Acts 20:28-38; Ps 68; Jn 17:11-19)<\/p>\n **************************************************<\/p>\n When someone is leaving us whom we know we will never see again, or dying, we tend to hang onto their last words as precious memories of them and teachings that will stay with us.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s liturgy focuses on the last words of Paul to the Ephesians and of Jesus to his disciples before his passion. They invite us to ponder the reality of servant leadership, the importance of unity, and the power of God\u2019s word to heal and transform us.<\/p>\n First, both St. Paul and Jesus are concerned about what will happen after they are gone in terms of leadership. Jesus asks the Father to protect and guard the apostles as they carry on without him, and then models what genuine leadership looks like by humbly giving his life away freely to redeem humanity. He had already rejected, during the temptations in the desert, the false gods (possessions, prestige and power) so many world leaders crave and cling to, at the cost of immeasurable human tragedy and misery (think Stalin, Mao, Hitler and countless other dictators). Now he would carry out the ultimate gesture of selfless, servant leadership by his death on the cross. There should be no need to say more \u2013 yet still there is too much of that precise reality in all kinds of leadership in our society and yes, even in the church.<\/p>\n St. Paul, in his own way, underlines the same theme of servant leadership to the elders, encouraging them to follow his own example (\u201cI coveted no one\u2019s silver or gold or clothing \u2026 worked with my own hands to support myself and my companions \u2013 giving you an example so that we might support the week \u2026 and live the words of Jesus who said, \u2018It is more blessed to give than to receive.\u2019\u201d) Paul certainly lived the words of Jesus \u2013 \u201cThe Son of Man came to serve and not to be served.\u201d And so must we, especially those of us tasked with leadership in the church.<\/p>\n A second concern for both Paul and Jesus was the unity of the Body of Christ. Paul mentions for three years he did not cease to warn them, with tears, of the danger of disunity, of \u201csavage wolves\u201d coming into the flock to distort the truth and divide the community. There are two words we use for the evil one \u2013 Satan and Devil. The word devil comes from the Greek diablos<\/em>which means \u201cto divide.\u201d So, whenever there is a divisive force in a group, however subtle, in or out of the church, it can be seen as touching on the diabolical, and that is cause for great sadness. Satan is just the opposite \u2013 he gathers people together but for the wrong reason \u2013 to destroy and kill (think ISIS, Boko Haram, gangs, etc.). There is the creation of community, but a shallow, fearful, imposed cohesion for a negative purpose \u2013 to wreak havoc and disturb. That has no place in the Church.<\/p>\n Jesus addresses the same issue but from a very positive and challenging perspective \u2013 inviting the apostles to maintain a unity among themselves that will mirror the very intimate relational energy of the Holy Trinity \u2013 to be one as the Father, Son and Spirit are one. What a challenge and goal for us to try to emulate! Certainly, that warrants all the energy we can muster up to work for unity and ecumenism through dialogue, common projects and seeking common ground, rather than what divides us. We need to be like Jean Vanier, who saw all diversity and differences not as threats to community, but as graces to help build stronger community.<\/p>\n A last concern felt by both St. Paul and Jesus is the power of God\u2019s word to heal and transform, although each expressed it differently. Paul speaks of the message of God\u2019s word that can build up and give them \u201cthe inheritance among all who are sanctified.\u201d He is speaking of the eternal life of peace, healing and joy that only the Spirit of Jesus can give. Sanctification essentially means \u201chealing\u201d\u2013 a true gift of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n For his part, Jesus speaks of the apostles being \u201csanctified in the truth,\u201d healed through the truth of who he is and the truth of their lives. As the Messiah, Jesus came to redeem and sanctify, to forgive and to heal. So, through faith in him and the power of his Spirit, they and we are forgiven all our sins and wrongdoing, and also healed of all our painful emotions and negative attitudes, and even our addictions. That is good news indeed and the source of our unbounded joy \u2013 through our faith in Jesus, we can truly be set free to live in the kingdom of the Father, and it does not get any better than that.<\/p>\n Today the church honors St Boniface, who lived fully these teachings of St. Paul and Jesus. He was born around 680 in Devonshire, England, given the name Wynfrid and was raised in Benedictine monasteries. By 717, he was a renowned teacher and preacher, but gave up his work in response to a call to the mission field of northern Netherlands. In Rome, Pope Gregory II renamed him Boniface. He was made archbishop of Mainze by Pope Gregory III. He was one of the truly outstanding creators of the first Europe as the apostle of Germania. Through his efforts to reorganize and regulate the church of the Franks, he helped shape Western Christianity, and many of the dioceses he proposed remain today. At Geismar, Boniface made a tremendous impression by destroying the great Oak of Thor, an object of pagan worship, without being harmed by \u201cthe gods\u201d (a missionary practice we would question today).<\/p>\n The Eucharist is both a source of and celebration of unity, as well as an experience of forgiveness and healing. It also mandates us to go out to the world as servant leaders, to live out these teachings of both Jesus our Lord and St. Paul, the world\u2019s greatest evangelizer, with the intercession and example of St. Boniface to aid us.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" HOMILY EASTER SEASON \u2013 WEEK 07 03 Important Words of Departure Memorial: St. Boniface \u2013 Bishop and Martyr (Acts 20:28-38; Ps 68; Jn 17:11-19) ************************************************** When someone is leaving us whom we know we will never see again, or dying, we tend to hang onto their last words as precious memories of them and teachings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-easter","category-homilies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2426"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2428,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2426\/revisions\/2428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/St-Boniface.jpeg\")
Boniface is called the \u201cApostle of Germany.\u201d He was\u00a0martyred<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Frisia<\/a>\u00a0in 754, along with 52 others, and his remains were returned to\u00a0Fulda<\/a>, where they rest in a sarcophagus which became a site of pilgrimage. Boniface’s life and death as well as his work became widely known. After his martyrdom, he was quickly hailed as a saint in Fulda and other areas in Germania and in England. His\u00a0cult<\/a>\u00a0is still notably strong today. Boniface is celebrated (and criticized) as a missionary, but he is regarded as a unifier of Europe, and is seen (mainly by Catholics) as a Germanic national figure.<\/p>\n