THE WORD AND THE SAINT
December 26, 2020: St. Stephen, the first MartyrActs 6: 8-10, 7: 54-59; Matthew 10: 17-22
Persecutions and Martyrdom have never been alien to Christian Faith. St. Stephen is the first Biblical evidence to it. Continuing in the line of the prophets and persons of God who have been treated at will by the world in the Old Testament, we see Jesus and most of his disciples facing the same end in the New Testament.
Some time ago, a person posted on the facebook saying he (or she?), was offended when the Churches all over the world were praying for Christians in Iraq and the person questioned: "Why only Christians? Why not others?" Today Christians in Iraq or Syria or Lebanon or China or India... all these 'persecuted Christians' should by now be a collective term for us...it should stand for and remind us of every person persecuted for truth, every person tortured unjustly, every person discriminated and trampled under the tyranny of violence and force! It is not merely Fr. Stan Swamy who is in prison, but every person who is unjustly held, tortured without cause and taken to task for standing by truth, has to be prayed for and sustainted.
St. Stephen knew what it meant to suffer for Christ; it meant suffering for the things that really matter; it meant standing for true beliefs and convictions that can elevate your spirit to the heavens open and the angels coming down! It was Stephen who also imitated his Master literally: while Jesus prayed for those who crucified him and offered his spirit into the hands of his loving Father, Stephen prayed for those who stoned him and surrendered his spirit into Jesus' hands. What an example for us to emulate! The other message, strong and clear, is the fact that it is an integral part of being a Christian, to suffer for what is right, for what is expected of me and for the cause of the Reign, which is justice and truth.
In fact, the crux of Christian identity in the pluralistic context today, is standing up for the Reign - that is, for justice, truth, peace, integral joy of all and the uplifting of the down trodden. Let our Christmas be extended, all through our lives - in becoming ourselves, epitomies of the Reign.