Holy Mass in Fulda (18 November 1980)

On 18 November 1980, the Holy Father celebrated Holy Mass in Fulda, Germany. In his homily, the Pope applied the words of Saint Paul, in I Thessalonians, to the work of Saint Boniface in evangelizing the Germans. 

1. Allow me, venerable brothers in the episcopate and in the priesthood, brothers and sisters of religious orders and congregations; Allow me, representatives of the lay apostolate present here, to first pay my respects to the one whose grave we came to on this pilgrimage, here to Fulda, to the shrine of your nation.

St. Boniface was a Benedictine, a member of that venerable order that had come to the British Isles with the monk Augustine in the days of Gregory the Great. Boniface heard the call of the peoples who inhabited the areas east of the Rhine in Germania. He followed it as the call of Christ, and thus set foot in the land of your ancestors.

St. Boniface, bishop and martyr, means the "beginning" of the Gospel and the Church in your country. We have come today to pick up on that "beginning"; to open us to its dimensions. The "beginning" signifies the work of God himself, using the testimony of one man: the testimony of Boniface, of his life and martyrdom.

2. In the second reading St. Paul to us with the words of his letter to the Thessalonians, but nobody doubts that the words of the Apostle of the Gentiles can also be put into the mouth of the Apostle of Germany. They emanate from his heart just as they emanated from the heart of Paul of Tarsus.

"We have boldly and fearlessly preached the gospel of God to you, trusting in our God, despite hard struggles". With you? Which were those peoples? What were the historical names of the tribes to which Boniface came as a missionary? The historians name the Thuringians and the Hessians, the Alemanni, the Bavarians and the Frisians. St. Bonifatius, at whose grave we are staying here in Fulda, brought to these peoples the words of the gospel and that unique love that became an inheritance of his heart through the power of the Holy Spirit - for him as for many before and after him: for apostles , missionaries and shepherds. “As apostles of Christ,” writes Paul, “we met you with love: as a mother cares for her children, so we loved you. we were willing to give you not only the gospel of God, but our own lives; because you had become very dear to us".

3. Let us now turn our gaze away from the reading of the Epistle to the Thessalonians and put ourselves in the Upper Room on the day before Easter. Christ says: “I no longer call you servants, because the servant does not know what his master is doing. Rather, I have called you friends; for I have told you all that I heard from my father". A significant contrast: servant is he who does not know; friend - the one who has been informed, who has been entrusted with everything; the one who knows.

And what does this friend and apostle know and know? He knows what Christ Himself heard from the Father. Because Christ communicated exactly what he heard from the Father to those he chose: the apostles, the friends.

Boniface, who came centuries ago to the land of your ancestors, had the same awareness and certainty that Christ encouraged his apostles in the Upper Room when he called them friends: We preach "because God tests us and entrusts us with the gospel not to please men, but to please God who examines our hearts". These words come from Paul, the apostle of the nations, but today's liturgy puts them in the mouth of Boniface, the apostle of Germany. And she is right to do so. The work of evangelization that he has done in your country is based on the fact that he preached God's teaching - and only God's teaching. He was willing to lay down his life out of love for those to whom he was sent.

4. However, the gospel does not always please people. And they may not always like it either. It must not be misrepresented as "flattery," nor should one seek in it personal gain, nor "vain glory." It can sometimes appear to the listener as "harsh speech", and those who proclaim and confess it can become a "sign of contradiction".

Because this divine truth, this good news, actually contains a great inner tension. In it the contrast between what comes from God and what comes from the world is intensified. Christ says: “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but since you are not of the world, the world hates you...". And: "Know that she hated me before you".

The cross is imprinted in the heart of the Gospel, the Good News. In him the two great currents intersect: one that goes from God to the world, to the people of the world, a current of love and truth; the second, which runs through the world: the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the boasting of possessions. They do not come "from the father".

This crossing of the two currents continues and is repeated in different aspects throughout history. In their midst, Christ himself lives on. Christ did not come into the world just to judge the world from the high judgment seat of absolute transcendental truth. He came that the world might be saved through him... And that's why he sends his disciples into the world: into "the whole world". He tells them: “If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my word, they will also keep your word”. Don't you have to be right here at the grave of St. Bonifatius in Fulda linger over the great significance of these words?

5. We have contemplated all that is contained in today's Liturgy of the Word, we have meditated on it with the utmost care, in order to pay homage to the first Patron of Germany. For all the words of the liturgy refer to him. They're talking about him. He became like a cornerstone of the Church in your fatherland precisely because these words were fulfilled in him.

As leaven penetrates flour, so Boniface penetrated and transformed hearts in the spirit of Christ with his testimony. We commemorate with him all the sons and daughters of your homeland, just as the first reading from the book of Jesus Sirach speaks of them: “I will praise the venerable men, our fathers, as they succeeded one another. Much honor has the Most High bestowed, much of his greatness, from the days of old: men who ruled the earth as kings, and who were famous for their might; counseling by their understanding, seeing all things prophetically. All of them were honored in their day, and their glory flourished in their day. Some left names so that their praise was passed on. And those are the venerable men whose merits have not been forgotten. Their good remains with their descendants,

How many names and surnames would one have to mention here! Here are just a few examples: Bruno von Querfurth and Benno von Meissen; Hildegard of Bingen and Elisabeth of Thuringia; Hedwig von Andechs and Gertrud von Helfta; Albert the Great and Peter Canisius; Edith Stein and Alfred Delp, Franz Stock and Karl Sonnenschein. Indeed, "her merits have not been forgotten...". “Her body is buried in peace, her name lives on from generation to generation. The congregation tells of their wisdom, the assembled people proclaim their praise”.

6. And behold, following the train of thought of the Old Testament reading and fixing our gaze on this marvelous picture that the liturgy paints before us, we come down to your generation at the present time.

Dear brothers and sisters! In fact, despite all the differences, our situation, our task has much in common with St. Boniface. In a way, the history of Christianity in your country began with him. Many say that this history of Christianity in your country should now begin anew, through you, through your spirit of St. Boniface molded testimony!

How precious it is that I can recommend this to you, dear Catholics from the councils and associations of the lay apostolate. The history of the Catholic associations over the last 130 years, but also the work of the councils of the lay apostolate, which have a good tradition in your country and have arisen everywhere since the Second Vatican Council, offer a promising prerequisite for the task of the hour. Do not rest on what you have achieved, but bravely dare to start like Boniface. As 'friends of Christ', give the 'gospel of God' and your 'own life' to the people of today.

7. Through Boniface not only did faith grow, but also that human culture which is the fruit and confirmation of faith flourished. In the transmission of faith and world service, you too have your most important task today as lay people. When people, especially young people, impetuously ask about the meaning of life: do you give them a convincing, understandable answer. If the right to life, if the ethical principles of truly humane culture are threatened: protect the right and the dignity of man! If a purely functionalistic, meaningless image of man is rampant in education and training: do you stand up for an education that starts from man as the image of God! When consumption and enjoyment on the one hand and fear of the limits of growth on the other characterize the mood in society:

Saint Boniface had a great wife for his sister: St. Abbess Lioba, whose tomb is venerated just a few kilometers from here: she gives the woman in our society and church that importance and that attention that allows her to fulfill her high mission for a truly human and Christian life. If, with all the progress of mankind, the group of those who live in marginal situations or do not fully participate in the fruits of general development also grows: you stand up for the rights and happiness of all, you are pioneers for a global social order, for freedom, justice, peace.

8. Dear brothers and sisters! You are jointly responsible for the future of our church. Be completely church yourself. Present in your associations the essential characteristics of the Church, one, holy, catholic and apostolic.

Be one among yourselves, be - in accordance with your great tradition - pillars and supports of the unity between the flock of Christ and their shepherds sent by Christ. Don't act out of prestige, selfishness, stubbornness, but be "one heart and one soul". Strongly promote the unity of divided Christianity! Church unity was St. Boniface.

be holy Yea, sanctify your own life, and keep present in your midst who alone is holy. Only when you make the distinctive character of the gospel your way of life can you inspire and attract people. And serve in your world testimony for the sanctification of the world.

Boniface was a saint in life and death.

Be Catholic, all-encompassing, open, worldwide like Boniface, who united England and Germany and Rome in his life and heart. Don't shut yourself up in your own worries and problems. Your commitment to all of mankind, to the Third World, to Europe is required so that the new beginning is a success.

Finally, be apostles, witnesses of the faith following the example of the martyr and apostle of the Germans, Boniface, one with the pope and bishops, but at the same time courageous in your own irreplaceable and irreplaceable commitment.

9. Allow me, dear brothers and sisters, to repeat these reflections at the tomb of St. Boniface, the apostle of your country, with a wish that I take from today's liturgy. We read in the book of Jesus Sirach: “Their offspring keep their covenant, and so do their children for the sake of their fathers. Their descendants endure forever, and their piety will never be forgotten."

What else can I give you and what more can I wish for you, the current Christian generation on German soil? And what could we pray together more fervently, here in this holy place? That the following generations keep faith in the covenant. That Christ is their way, their truth, and their life. That they, like you, may come to this place which signifies the "beginning" of God's work in your homeland. That they continue to shape the present from here.

... and your piety will never be forgotten.

© Copyright 1980 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Copyright © Dicastero per la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana