Daily Gospel Reflection
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June 5, 2019
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying:
“Holy Father, keep them in your name
that you have given me,
so that they may be one just as we are one.
When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me,
and I guarded them, and none of them was lost
except the son of destruction,
in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I am coming to you.
I speak this in the world
so that they may share my joy completely.
I gave them your word, and the world hated them,
because they do not belong to the world
any more than I belong to the world.
I do not ask that you take them out of the world
but that you keep them from the Evil One.
They do not belong to the world
any more than I belong to the world.
Consecrate them in the truth.
Your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world,
so I sent them into the world.
And I consecrate myself for them,
so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”
“As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world.”
In today’s Gospel, commonly known as the Farewell Prayer, Jesus asks his Father to protect and bless his disciples as he prepares to leave them and enter into his Passion. Jesus is letting go of them and allowing them to move into a new phase of life, one in which he is no longer right by their side to guard and guide them.
Jesus knows what it is like to let go, and I do too. Over the past two summers, I have packed up and said goodbye to two of my children: first, Sarah, as she finished her graduate degree at Notre Dame and moved away from Phoenix to begin a job in Denver; and last summer, Asher, as he graduated from Notre Dame and moved to San Francisco to begin his consulting career. As I watched my beloved children drive away in loaded U-Hauls, I anxiously wondered if I had given them enough instructions so that they would know how to be in the world but not of it and safeguarded from the Evil One.
As disciples of Jesus, each of us has been sent in his name to bring his message of love into the world. We are called to be a force for good in the world, a charge Fr. John Jenkins passes on to new graduates every year at Notre Dame. We have been sanctified and set apart for this special purpose.
Letting go is not easy, and I sometimes still worry. Yet, I can remember that Jesus prays for all of us. Entrusted into the Father’s loving care, we are blessed by God’s protecting love as we move through the messiness of this world in service of his mission.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, you prayed for the mercy shown by the Father, and promised to protect us so that we may be one as you and the Father are one. Look not at our faults and failures, and grant us your forgiveness and your mercy. Give us strength to call upon you, and may we all be one in faith, service, courage, and truth.
Saint of the Day
St. Boniface is known as the “Apostle of Germany” for his tremendous missionary efforts spreading the faith through that region of Europe during the Dark Ages.
He was born in England in 680, and baptized with the name Winfrid. At the age of 5, he had his first encounter with educated monks when several visited his home. When he heard them speak, he knew he wanted an education as well, and his parents let him go to school at a nearby monastery. When he exhausted that place’s resources for learning, he moved to a bigger monastery, and in time, was named director of the school there.
He was a gifted teacher and had an attractive personality, and was ordained a priest at the age of 30. He felt a calling from God to spread the faith as a missionary, and received permission to travel to mainland Europe, which was dominated by pagan religions. He left in the spring of 716 with two others, but immediately discovered that the rulers of the area where he landed were actively persecuting Christians.
He returned to his monastery in England, but still felt called to serve as a missionary--though the monks there tried to elect him abbot so he would stay. He traveled to Rome to have this calling confirmed by the pope, who gave him an official commission and changed his name to Boniface. From there he traveled to Germany, where he journeyed among the people and evangelized them.
In one area, it is said that he decided to strike at the root of the people’s pagan beliefs. He announced that he would cut down an oak tree considered sacred to the gods believed in by the people. Crowds gathered to watch, expecting him to be struck down for this act of blasphemy. He felled the oak, which shattered into four pieces. The people acknowledged that their gods had no power, and many converted.
Boniface went on to systematically evangelize central Germany, founding churches, establishing dioceses, and organizing the hierarchy. He also began a number of monasteries as centers of learning and faith, and encouraged monks and nuns from England to live in them. A number of saints found their way to heaven by joining his work.
The Church in what is now France was in a terrible state at that time—clerical offices were being sold to the highest bidder, the clergy themselves were ignorant and immoral, and the king plundered the Church coffers to pay for his wars. When the king died, Boniface capitalized on the opportunity—he convinced the successors, who were faithful Christians, to help reform the Church, which reinvigorated the faithful there.
He retired at the age of 73 and handed over the leadership of all he had founded. This did not slow him down from evangelizing, however—he returned to the mission fields, finding new people who had not encountered the Gospel. One evening, his encampment was attacked by pagans, and he was the first killed.
St. Boniface is said to have had a deeper influence on the history of Europe than any Englishman ever. Even his contemporaries recognized him as a holy man—he was simple, yet had great insight and power as a missionary and reformer. The relics of St. Boniface rest in the reliquary chapel of the Basilica.
St. Boniface, martyr who planted the Church in Germany—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Bonfiace is in the public domain. Last accessed March 18, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
