Memorial Saint Boniface, bishop and martyr
Today's Mass Readings
As with most readings for saints’ days, today’s readings help us see Saint Boniface as someone who is a witness for Jesus Christ and who points us in the right direction toward following God.
Today’s gospel reading (Mark 12:35-37) depicts Jesus as converter and apologist. As he preaches in the temple to people who might well be quite skeptical of his message, Jesus quotes from Psalm 110. The question he addresses is a question about whether the Messiah is related to David. Jesus’ answer is a bit cryptic, but one way to understand it is that Jesus wants the crowd to understand Messiah as something much different and greater than being a son of David. Being related to a king is pretty nice, but Jesus’ point is that the Messiah who comes is not simply a king. So, when Psalm 110 depicts two Lords speaking to each other, Christians have seen this as evidence that Jesus is God – not a mere human. The crowds respond to Jesus’ words “with delight” – they are convinced by Jesus and presumably change the way they live their lives because of Jesus’ words. Saint Boniface followed Jesus by being converter and apologist too. He was born in Anglo-Saxon England and became a Christian there, but eventually felt that God wanted him to be a missionary in other parts of the world. So he left his homeland for Frisia (present-day western Netherlands, and northwestern coastal Germany) and converted some of the tribal peoples there. Later in his life, he became bishop of Mainz, but he always held in his heart desire to evangelize. So, nearing the age of eighty, he received permission to go back to Frisia and convert more people. But he was attacked by hostile Frisians and died a brutal death on this day in 754. As he died, he said, “This now is that very day we have long dreamed of. That moment of freedom we have yearned for is right here.”
Saint Boniface’s words mirror the words and deeds of another old and devout person. In today’s Old Testament reading, we see Tobit being healed of cataracts. Tobit recovers his sight, but this is not just about the fact that he can now see his son, whom he has longed to see. This is a broader story about God’s faithfulness in the face of adversity. Tobit launches into a prayer to God in which he says, “It was he who scourged me and it is he who has had mercy on me.”
Just as Saint Boniface is able to see, in the midst of brutality, that he is now going to be free to love and worship God fully, so Tobit is able to see that God acts graciously and mercifully despite and in the suffering and hurt we experience. May we, too, seek God even in the midst of struggle, and like Boniface, may we keep up our witness on behalf of Jesus.
- Jana M. Bennett