Looking Intently to heaven

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Stephen, the first martyr, who held fast to his faith in Christ Jesus in the face of the outrage “of the members of the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen, Cyrenians, and Alexandrains, and the people from Cilicia and Asia.”  They were unable to debate with Stephen, as his wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke was too much for them. Hearing him, “they were infuriated, and they ground their teeth at him. In the midst of their attack upon him, Stephen, “filled with the Holy “Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,” saying to his attackers:  “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 6: 8-10; 7: 54-59). 

Many times when our loved ones are face to face with death, they, too, I believe, see the “glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.”  The “heavens [open]” and they see “the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God,” as they, too, look “intently to heaven.” God, we know, is always with us in our best of times and our “worst” of times, worst humanly speaking.  God never abandons us. That is why He became one of us in the flesh.  He is always close at hands, even when we are unaware of His presence.