Saint Stephen - First among the Martyrs
Today, the Church sets us an example to imitate, St. Stephen, Martyr. It would not be surprising if yesterday we did not celebrate the Nativity of Jesus Christ. So, we see here, from a purely human point of view, a certain contradiction. On the one hand, human life awakening to life, on the other, death, and acruel death by stoning.
It is worth asking ourselves: why, just after the joyful feast day, do we venerate the memory of St Stephen, the first martyr?
In response, a fragment of the meditation that Saint John Paul II gave before the Angelus on December 26, 2003, can help us. During this reflection he said the following words: “The Church calls the day of martyrdom a dies natalis (birthday). Indeed, by virtue of Christ's death and Resurrection, the death of the martyr is a birth in Heaven. This is why it is so meaningful to celebrate the First Martyr the day after Christmas: Jesus who was born in Bethlehem gave his life for us so that we too, reborn "from on high" through faith and Baptism, might be willing to give up our own lives for love of our brothers and sisters”.
So, today it is worth looking a little deeper and seeing what the Church wants to tell us through today's feast.
For St. Stephen, the greatest value was to be faithful to the Truth to the end. He found this truth in the person of Jesus Christ. It can be said that he knew very well what he was living for and for whom he was dying. For his faithfulness to Christ, he received the greatest reward: death. Therefore, it is necessary to realize clearly that those who consistently follow Jesus must take into account the necessity of paying for faith, for love. They are not cheap, they have a price.
Jesus said to his disciples:
- Beware of men, for they will hand you over to courts; and scourge you in their synagogues,
- and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake
- Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death.
- You will be hated by all because of my name,
The day after the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, St Stephen pulls us out of our sentimentalism. It shows us clearly and concretely that human life is a moment of joy, but also of difficult moments. God himself became man, and this means that he also assumed the fate of man: the beauty of life, but also the pain associated with it. With human life he also accepted the inevitable necessity of death. However, it could not be an ordinary death. His martyrdom was necessary, because neither His words, nor the miracles and signs He performed, convinced many people that He was the Messiah they were expecting.
It is very easy for us to accept Jesus made man, the child who was born yesterday in Bethlehem. It is much more difficult for us to accept Jesus looking at us from the wood of the cross. The faith in which the cross is inscribed is difficult to comprehend, because in such moments our life can be turned upside down. It then looks like tangled threads. Only when we put it properly and is understood in the light of the Gospel, we see its shapes, colors, and meaning.
Today, when we are shown many alternative ways of life, it is easy to focus only on what is nice and pleasant. We made wishes, sang carols, we were at Midnight Mass. However, this is not enough. Jesus wants us to follow Him to the end, no matter what happens in our lives.
He wants us to truly bear witness to him, as Saint Stephen did. I think that it is especially necessary today, when faith wants to be marginalized and it is said that it is not necessary, that it is only an addition to our lives. And yet faith is necessary for our lives
And Jesus himself assures us today: Whoever endures to the end will be saved.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george