June 2020 - First Friday - Eucharistic Lessons from an axe-wielding Bishop

At morning Mass I told one of my favorite stories from the saints, about the bishop and martyr St. Boniface, known as the apostle to the Germans. Boniface was an English Benedictine monk who devoted his life to evangelizing the Germanic Tribes, who at the time worshiped the false Norse gods and goddesses like Thor, Freya, Loki, and Odin. The Pagans were proving quite resistant to conversion, abandoning their false gods and accepting the Christian Gospel. So the holy missionary went to the giant oak tree where the Pagans gathered to offer false worship to Thor.  And Boniface took an axe, and he begins chopping down this pagan idol. The pagans cursed Boniface and waited for him to be struck dead by their gods for his sacrilege.  The story says that when Boniface had chopped just a small notch into the tree, God finished the job, the tree was blast apart from above.  And the pagans who had before cursed Boniface now began to believe.  And moreover, Boniface took the wood of the tree and built an oratory in honor of Saint Peter. 

Boniface’s actions certainly would not be considered politically correct in our modern age, but neither is the Gospel really, not when it is preached in its entirety.

What does this holy missionary, who went on to become bishop and a martyr for the faith teach us about eucharistic adoration? Well, we come here for the same reason, don’t we, that Boniface went to the pagan germans: that the Christian Gospel, that the kingdom may be spread, in our nation, in our neighborhoods, in our families, and in our hearts. We come here to pray that the Gospel may be spread—more devoutly preached and lived.

We also come here, not to a pagan idol, but to the One True God, truly present, here and now, under the appearance of bread and wine. He has the power to save us, he has the power to bring about true peace. He has the power to strike down the pagan oak trees that seem to be springing up like weeds in our modern culture. We come here to be equipped by him with the grace we need to be his instruments in the world--to be his axes in the world--his scythes for harvest and his swords of truth. We come here also to pray that our bishops, especially our future bishop of Cleveland, may be well-equipped and have the competency and courage to utilize the spiritual weapons at their disposal. That their faith may be sturdier than any pagan oak, that they may wield the blade of the spirit, to convict us of the Gospel.

And we come here before our Eucharistic Lord, that any worldliness, any vice, any coldness toward God or neighbor, may be struck down within us. May the Lord help us to identify anything within us that is resistant to the Gospel, any pagan oaks or weeds of worldliness, anything that keeps us from experiencing the peace that comes from God, and anything that keeps us from the courage exhibited by saints and martyrs like Boniface, any fear or timidity that keeps us from witnessing to the transforming power of the Gospel, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.