The Birth of a Christian

WORD 2day: Christmas Octave - December 26, 2023

St. Stephen the first martyr: Acts 6: 8-10, Acts 6: 8-10, 7: 54-59; Matthew 10: 17-22

Yesterday we celebrated the birth of Christ; today we celebrate the birth of a Christian! Stephen becomes a true Christ-ian, as he follows what his Master taught and lived, in his own life and even in his death! 

One does not become a Christian automatically, one becomes a Christian, through a process of continual imitation of Christ. As Thomas A Kempis, reflects in his classic The Imitation of Christ, "whoever wishes to understand fully the words of Christ must try to pattern his whole life on that of Christ." It is not that we try to understand the words of Christ, in order that we put it into practice, but we strive to practice and we begin to understand what it really means. 

Let us do an exercise: first let us read the Gospel today - Jesus has some strong words to teach us, we might even miss to observe the full sense of it; now let us go to the first reading and read it - that becomes a practical explanation of what Jesus taught! And certainly we understand the depth of it, however painful and frightening it is. That is the beauty of a true Christian life: it becomes a commentary to the teachings of Christ. 

It is not enough to look at Jesus as a child born yesterday, sweet and mild, and celebrate around. It is important to open our eyes to the constant challenges of being Christians, more precisely, challenges of becoming Christians - we are constantly called to become Christians. That is to grow more and more into the likeness of Christ. May St. Stephen the first martyr inspire us in this project of our life.