Along with Philip and five others, Stephen was one of the seven men chosen to serve as what the Church, at least since the second century, considers to be her first deacons. Philip and Stephen are the only ones we hear more about after their selection by the community and their “ordination” by the Apostles, which occurs just prior to today’s reading, at the beginning of Acts 6.1 What we hear about Stephen and Philip is that they were tireless evangelists.
It bears on the validity of the Mass that it is a deacon who proclaims the Gospel. When a priest reads the Gospel at a Mass in which there is no deacon of the Mass, he does so as a deacon. It is the practice of the Latin Church, according to the cursus honorum, for priests to first be ordained deacons.
Note that it is written of Stephen that, “filled with grace and power,” he worked “great signs and wonders among the people.”2 So steeped was the Greek-speaking Jewish Christian Stephen in both the Law and the Gospel that no one was able to “withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.”3 So, they simply accused him of blasphemy and, like Christ, brought him before the Sanhedrin. Even then, Stephen’s countenance was that of an angel.4
Stephen before the Sanhedrin
Stephen’s stoning was likely the kick-off of the persecution of the primitive Church in Jerusalem.5 It was a result of that persecution that Philip relocated to Samaria, where he continued to the preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. His efforts yielded an abundant harvest.6
In our Gospel, the masses followed Jesus not because of what He taught or even because of the signs and wonders He performed. They followed Him in hope of being fed again, of eating their fill for free. Lest we’re too hard on them, bear in mind that most of these folks were probably hungry most of the time. Nonetheless, instead of working for food that will leave them hungry yet again, the Lord exhorts them to work for the food that truly satisfies- the food He longs to give them, which is Himself.
What is this work of God, this opus Dei, they ask. "This is the work of God,” the Lord teaches them and us, “that you believe in the one he sent.”7 To believe in Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, is to have His Spirit, which is also the Spirit of the Father. As Saint Stephen, the Church’s first martyr, shows us, to have the Holy Spirit is to proclaim this Good News. It is the opus Dei to invite others to the banquet where they, too, can receive “the food that endures for eternal life,” the food of which we are here to partake.8
1 See Acts 6:1-6.↩
2 Acts 6:8.↩
3 Acts 6:10.↩
4 Acts 6:15.
5 See Acts 7:54-60.↩
6 For Philip’s evangelistic exploits see Acts 8.↩
7 John 6:29.↩
8 John 6:27.
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