St. Boniface was an eighth century monk who brought Christianity to Germany. In order to do so he had to overcome deep-rooted idolatry.
One of the best known episodes is the time when he stepped up to a great tree dedicated to the God Thor, and began to chop it down. The people shrank back in horror. But when the tree crashed to the ground and nothing happened, many were won over to Christianity.
When he was 80 years old, Boniface was attacked and brutally killed by a group of hostile pagans.
A later legend gives a different twist to the tree incident – and relates it to the Christmas tree.
As the legend goes, one day Boniface came upon some men gathered around a great oak tree, about to sacrifice a child to the god Thor. Boniface himself struck the tree down, and from its center there grew a small evergreen
Boniface told the people to take small evergreens into their homes and surround them with gifts.
After nine months of being deaf and mute, the first words from Zechariah’s lips are words “blessing God.”
The people had supposed that this long-awaited child, born to aged parents would be “little Zachary.” But nine months earlier, the angel had appeared to Zechariah and said, “Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name him John.”
“John” is a Hebrew word that means “God has shown favor.” This is a graced child who is called to express in his life God’s love, God’s favor to all people.
I too am graced, called to express in my life God’s love, God’s favor to all people.
There’s a lot to think about in this passage. Perhaps I should simply think about my own name – how and why it was given, how it sounded when spoken over me as a child.
And…how it sounds now when God speaks it.
Spend some quiet time with the Lord.