Today's first reading from the First Letter of Peter offers an exhortation to his hearers who are facing difficult times: be eager to stand firm. As the people who heard Peter so we too, today, need to remember that the Lord has an infinite amount of patience; in fact He never tires, but His adopted children need to recall that only He's the matrix of the covenant's fulfillment. God is present, stand firm.
Saint Boniface, the Englishman monk who became the Apostle to Germany, whose memory we commemorate today, also exhorted those of his time to stand firm because God is present. In the Office of Readings this morning I reacquainted myself with a rather curious set of images that Boniface delivered to the bishops of his time and place make connects very nicely with the Scriptures. Saint Boniface said, "Let us be neither dogs that do not bark nor silent onlookers nor paid servants who run away before the wolf. Instead let us be careful shepherds watching over Christ's flock. Let us preach the whole of God's plan to the powerful and to the humble, to rich and to poor, to men of every rank and age, as far as God gives us the strength, in season and out of season, as Saint Gregory writes in his book of Pastoral Instruction."
Indeed, let the bark be heard.
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