The Feast of St. Stephen, Monday, December 26, 2022

Matthew 10, 17-22

Jesus said to his disciples: “Beware of men, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved.”

The Holy Church places the Feast of St. Stephen, the first martyr, immediately after the celebration of the Son of God’s Birth on earth for the same reason that St. Matthew relates how, just after his Birth by the Virgin Mary, King Herod sought to kill him.  The fact is that holiness attracts persecution.  The Jewish Christians for whom Matthew wrote his Gospel suffered for their faith very soon after they professed it and were baptized.  The Jewish authorities in Galilee and Judea seized their property, denied them employment, arrested them, beat them, and killed them.  On the very day that Stephen was martyred, “a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles” (Acts of the Apostles 8, 1).  

We also see how just as Christ was persecuted soon after he was born, so was the Church, his Body.  After the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles at Pentecost, they began to preach the Gospel in Jerusalem.  Within a few days, Peter and John healed a beggar of his lameness and used the occasion to preach.  The Jewish authorities rushed upon them and arrested them (Acts 4, 3).  A little later, they arrested all twelve of the Apostles and beat them.

Suffering and persecution are a normal part of the Church’s life, and the Christian’s life.  But this is merely a prelude to glory in heaven.  St. James, the son of Alphaeus and bishop of Jerusalem, knew suffering in his own life as he struggled to hold his congregation of Judean Christians together, finally laying down his own life for the Lord.  In his Letter, he counsels his people, “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1, 2-4).  Persecution is a sign that the devil sees us as a threat, and the Lord permits us to be tested by it so that our faith can be strengthened even further.  As we are tested, we should keep in mind,  “Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him” (James 1, 12).

Let us be renewed in our faith by the graces up during this holy season so that we may persevere in it at all times for the reward at the end of doming into the presence of the living God.