Feast of Saint Stephen, first martyr

Readings: Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59; Psalm 31:3-6.6.8.16-17; Matthew 10:17-22

By long tradition and practice, the Church celebrates the Feast of Saint Stephen, the Church’s first martyr, the day after Christmas. This is only incongruent to people who do not really understand the meaning of Christmas. From her earliest days, the Church has identified the wood of the manger with the wood of the altar.

It was Saint Francis of Assisi, also a deacon, who also gave us the Christmas creche or Nativity scene, and who identified the wood of the manger with the wood of the cross. This is set forth nicely in a contemporary Christian song by Michael Card, in a tune entitled “The Final Word":

He spoke the Incarnation and so was born the Son
His final word was Jesus, he needed no other one
He spoke flesh and blood, so he could bleed and make a way divine
And so was born the baby who would die to make it mine¹

As Christians, we must always bear in mind what the resurrected Lord said to the dejected disciples as they made their way from Jerusalem back to Emmaus: “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”² He then proceeded, as he accompanied them, to explain how the scriptures teach this front-to-back.

Saint Stephen, on the day after our celebration of the Lord’s Nativity, stands as a stark reminder of the Risen Lord's teaching. He also gives us a wonderful example of what is set forth this morning in our Gospel, taken this morning from Saint Matthew. In worldly terms, salvation is often a dirty, gritty, and at times terrifying affair. But the hope we have in Christ trumps this.

Hope is not optimism. Standing on the threshold of martyrdom, a martyr is not optimistic. Stephen knew the trajectory of what was happening to him as the result of his bold preaching of Jesus as Messiah and Lord. He was not optimistic that his brethren, incensed at what they perceived to be not only heresy but blasphemy of his proclamation, would drop their rocks and let him walk away.

It was genuine hope that theological virtue- a gift from God- that enabled Stephen not only to stand firm in his testimony of the one who died and rose, thus becoming the gate to eternal life, but to forgive and pray to God to forgive those who were going to kill him.

To push the second part of our first reading from Acts a bit further, after declaring to the hostile group his vision of the risen Lord sitting in glory at the righthand of the Father, falling to his knees from the impact of the stones, Stephen prayed: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”³

The Stoning of Saint Stephen, by Giovanni Battista Lucini, 1508

Irenaeus, it seems to me, was quite correct in his identification of these men as deacons. Along with episcopacy, the diaconate is the oldest major order of ministry in the Church, older than the presbyterate. Indeed, we see in the lives of Stephen and Philip, another of those seven men, the threefold munera of diaconal ministry: word, liturgy, and charity. Philip, who fled the persecution the earliest Church was experiencing in Jerusalem, went to Samaria with his daughters, where he continued to boldly preach the Gospel. Thus, Philip survived the persecution. Stephen did not survive the persecution. He triumphed over it!

It also bears noting that Paul, under his Hebrew name Saul (Paul, or Paulus, being his Latin, or Roman, name), makes his first appearance in Sacred Scripture at the stoning of Stephen. He was likely the one who incited the synagogue members to drag Stephen outside the city and kill him. I believe the faith, hope, and love exhibited by Stephen eventually helped facilitate Paul's conversion.

I think the Intercessions from the Church's Morning Prayer today can serve as an exhortation on this Second Day of Christmas:

Your martyrs freely embraced death in bearing witness to the faith,
     -give us true freedom of the Spirit, O Lord.
Your martyrs professed their faith by shedding their blood,
     -give us a faith, O Lord, that is constant and pure.
Your martyrs followed in your footsteps by carrying the cross,
     -help us to endure courageously the misfortunes of life.
Your martyrs washed their garments in the blood of the Lamb,
     -help us to avoid the weaknesses of the flesh and worldly allurements.⁴

Saint Stephen, holy martyr, imitator of the Infant of Bethlehem, pray for us, that we, too, may come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.

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1 Michael Card. The Final Word (album). “The Final Word” (song).^↩
2 Luke 24:26.^↩
3 Acts 7:60.^↩
4 Liturgy of the Hours. Proper of Saints, December 26- Saint Stephen, first martyr- Feast. Intercessions.^↩