Feast of St. Stephen, the first Martyr

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Stephen, the first person to give his life for his faith in Christ Jesus.

In the Gospel, Mt. 10: 17-22, Jesus tells us not to worry about what we might say when confronted for our faith, when we are challenged by pagans, non-believers, and/or oppressors because “[y]ou 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.”  Stephen, filled with the wisdom of the Spirit, was no match for his debaters, St. Luke tells us in the first reading of today’s liturgy, Acts 6: 8-10; 7: 54-59.  Stephen “was working great wonders and signs among the people. Certain members of the so-called Synagogue of Freemen, Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and people from Cilicia and Asia, came forward and debated with Stephen, but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke.”

The Spirit that willed Stephen is also within our very beings. We, too, have access to the Wisdom of God, who comes to us in Baptism, Confirmation, the Holy Eucharist and through grace available to all who call upon the name of the Lord.  May you and I, today, experience that power at work within us and around us and within and around others as well. May our eyes be opened to the wonders of the Lord worked by others, by the signs God’s gives of His love’s transforming power.

The infant Jesus, God among us, continues to this day to come in disguises and in ways that, many times, pass us unawares. Our efforts to seek the Lord each day make it more likely that we will recognize Him in the daily events of the day: in our children, our young people, the elderly, our own family members and relatives, our priests and deacons, in the signs of the times (the disasters around us that invite us to call upon the Lord and put our faith in God, not in material things or even in humankind. God alone saves!