Lesson 1: Hope comes from above, learn to see it!
26 December, 2024: St. Stephen the proto-martyr
Acts 6: 8-10, 7: 54-59; Matthew 10: 17-22
They speak of White Christmas in quite a few countries, referring mostly to a Christmas marked by snowfall. Christmas this year I feel should be called, the Green Christmas, understanding green as the colour of hope! Yes, it is a Christmas of hope, not only for the reason that there is so much of hopelessness experienced and expressed, world around – that has been the case for a few years now. But for another important reason, because it has marked the beginning of the Jubilee Year of Hope!
Beginning
today, I wish to involve you in reflecting together on this Christmas of Hope,
for this entire week of Christmas. Some lessons for today, that the Christmas
of Hope gives us, invites us to offer to the rest of the world around us,
beginning today.
The
very first lesson is this: Hope comes from above, learn to see it. Today we have
Stephen, who is killed! To our eyes, to the eyes of those who did that to
him, he was killed. But for him, he was not killed – he was taken to paradise,
he graduated, he rose from this world to the next! That was because, as we see
in the Acts of the Apostles today: he saw the heaven thrown open, he saw the
Son of Man standing at the right hand of God… and he said to the Son of Man:
Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit.
Those standing around him could not understand what he was doing, they could not believe the way he was behaving, because they did not see what he saw! People may not understand you, people may not accept you, people may wish to destroy you – but fix your eyes on the One above, on the heaven open, and learn to see what can give you hope… the Lord says, you who stand firm to the end, will be saved
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