Memorial of St Boniface

2 Tim. 1:1-3.6-12, Mk 12:18-27. The Sadducees recognised the authority of the Torah, that nothing suggest a life beyond this earthly life. Today’s Gospel describes how the Sadducees set Jesus on a kind of riddle to trap Him. The scenario they proposed imagines the afterlife as the physical extension of our present, bodily life. However, Jesus envisions total newness: “When they rise… they do not marry; no, they are like the angels in Heaven.” The afterlife is not in physical continuity with what we experience here and now; it will be of a different quality entirely, beyond our present power to understand.

Paul foresaw the afterlife in terms of transformation: “We shall all be changed” (1 Cor. 15:52). In today’s first reading, Paul expresses his trust in that future: “I know the one in whom I have put my trust.” Our love for God and others will be perfected in Heaven, where we shall be all that God wants us to be. When this life ends, our final judgment will be decided on the level of our love; the extent of our giving; whether we fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, comforted the sick and visited prisoners (Mt. 25:40). If love for strangers is so rewarded and remembered, surely the love and self-sacrifice in marriage must be rewarded also. The work of Boniface was rewarded as he is numbered among the saints. Boniface (675-754) was born in Devon and educated at the monastery at Exeter. Joined the Benedictine abbey at Nursling, near Southampton. He was a teacher and preacher, but he desired to preach the Gospel in a foreign land. In 718, Pope Gregory II commissioned him to do so, at the same time changing his name from Wynfrith to Boniface.

May the Lord renew our strength, so that everyone who witnesses our works and actions may truly recognise the Lord being present in the world? Amen!! Have a glorious day!!!