One flock, one shepherd

On the surface, it seems natural to celebrate the feast of a martyr like St. Boniface with Jesus describing himself as the Good Shepherd – the one who lays down his life for his sheep.  But for St. Boniface, the connection is even more apt.

As a young Anglo-Saxon boy in the late seventh century, St. Boniface entered a Benedictine monastery in what is now England.   He became very learned, eventually being ordained a priest in the monastery.  While a very successful teacher and on the “abbot track” at the monastery, he longed for more.  He felt called to be a missionary to his ancestors in what is now Germany.

When he arrived in Saxony, he discovered that the Christians there had slowly drifted back to paganism.  With the fall of the Roman Empire several centuries earlier, they had lost all connection to Rome and the pope.  Spiritually, they were rudderless.  Gradually, pagan practices and superstitions – even the worship of pagan gods – became common.  When Boniface traveled to Rome to report this, the Pope appointed him as bishop with the mandate to bring the people back to the Church.  After many, many years, Boniface was successful in this mission and today is regarded as the “Apostle to the Germans.”

But Boniface’s influence was far greater.  In reforming the German people, he also helped to reform the church in France, ruled by Charles Martel, Charlemagne’s grandfather, and then by Pepin the Short, Charlemagne’s father.  In doing so, he facilitated the union of this important family with the Pope – a relationship that led to the creation of the Holy Roman Empire in the year 800.  Boniface’s role fulfilled what Jesus tells us was his goal as the Good Shepherd – that there be one flock and one shepherd (Jn 10:16).

Ultimately, Boniface was martyred as he tried to draw more of the Germanic tribes – some of who had never been Christianized at all – into the one flock of Jesus Christ.  But long before he literally laid down his life, he had figuratively laid down his comfortable life in the monastery for the arduous work of a missionary to further this goal of unity.

Like Boniface, we are all called, in ways large and small, to promote unity among Jesus’ disciples and, ultimately, to draw others into the flock. 

But that’s always been a tough one for me.  I have been long conditioned to work independently, to earn my own keep, to look out for number one.  Surely, I’m willing to listen to and work with others, to be one with others, as long as they can help me maximize pleasure, possessions, power and protection for me and mine in this world. 

Boniface knew that this self-driven motive also drove the people to whom he preached.  He realized that this pattern could only be broken by creating unity with Rome and the vicar of Christ.  Without this intimate connection to the teachings and traditions that stretched back to the apostles and to Jesus himself, they would simply continue to drift their own way and Boniface would have no hope of rebuilding true faith among the German and Frankish tribes.

Thus, Boniface reminds me that my connection with the Church – the one flock led by the one shepherd – is vital.  He call me to consider how I have reconciled my personal feelings, interests and desires with the magisterium of the Church, with the teachings of the vicar of Christ, our holy father in Rome? 

Only by more building a deeper and more intimate connection with the Church, can I hope to figuratively lay down a life centered on self-gratification.  Only then can I even hope to do what Jesus calls me to do – place my complete trust in the God who loves me unconditionally and eternally, love my neighbor as myself, do unto others as I would have them do unto me, forgive seventy-seven times, and pray that I can offer my will that it becomes God’s will, but God’s will be done nonetheless. 

St. Boniface not only reminds us to be one with the shepherd, he also helps us to be one.  All we have to do is ask.

St. Boniface, pray for us.