Faith-Martyrdom-St. Stephen

HOMILY FEAST OF ST STEPHEN

Witnessing to Our Trinitarian Faith

(Acts 6:8-10; Ps 31; Mt 10:17-22)

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If it were against the law to be a Catholic Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you, and what would be the evidence?

Today’s feast of St. Stephen and its readings invite us into a deeper Trinitarian faith, to love unconditionally and live Calvary in slow motion.

St, Stephen was one of the first deacons of the Church, chosen for his faith in and love of Christ. He was also the first martyr for the Christian faith. The evidence against him was that he preached the resurrection of Jesus to the Jewish establishment. He correctly saw Jesus as the fulfillment of the Jewish faith, the Just One who was foretold by all the prophets in the Hebrew Bible. In today’s gospel from Matthew, Jesus fulfills those prophecies himself as he speaks of the Spirit of our Father speaking through us, revealing a Trinitarian God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Just like their forefathers, the Jewish religious leaders did not want to be reminded of their infidelity to the covenants God made with them over the centuries. They did not want to hear anything that would challenge the self-serving religious system they had built up in its place providing them power and control.

St Luke in his account of the martyrdom of Stephen is careful to include a description of God as Trinitarian, a God who is relationship: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, saw Jesus the Son of Man standing at the right side of the Father. Even as he was dying, Stephen witnessed to the Holy Trinity. To the rigid, narrow-minded religious leaders, that was tantamount to blasphemy, and that gave them the right, in their minds, to use violence and stone Stephen to death.

That act of violence betrayed the religious leaders wilful ignoring of their own scriptures, which in Exodus portrays Moses as learning that God was merciful, compassionate and gracious, steadfast in love, tenaciously faithful and forgiving. It is this image of God Jesus consistently revealed, to the point of also being martyred by the same religious leaders. It is both sad and strange that humanity simply could not handle a God who is love, and struggles to do so to this day – with so much violence happening in the name of religion.

We who believe in Jesus and are striving to be his disciples as was Stephen, can expect to also be rejected and put down for our faith. We may not be martyred like Stephen, but we are called to live Calvary in slow motion; to die to ourselves every day in big and small ways. That will happen to us if we make love our priority and way of life. We are called to love God with our whole being – so we can expect ridicule and resistance when we worship every Sunday. We are called to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, and that can be misunderstood. We are called to love others as Jesus loved us, which means being ready to sacrifice some of our interests for the sake of others. Finally, we are called to love our enemies, which means to forgive them from the heart – always a great challenge.

Like John the Baptist, we are called to speak truth to power, and may suffer ridicule and rejection from our society that seems to be losing its faith more and more every day. To stand against abortion seems to be politically incorrect, as is to stand against physician-assisted suicide today. To be against premarital sex, common law relationships, and to assert that marriage is a life-long covenant between a man and woman is to open oneself to criticism and ridicule. To work against climate change like Pope Francis is to be the butt of disbelievers in climate change. In many and varied ways, we will experience Calvary in slow motion because of our faith in Jesus and love for others.

When I was taking Addictions Counsellor Training some years ago I found myself one of only two participants out of a group of twenty-three who believed in the resurrection from the dead, as all the others were taking reincarnation for granted. I had to face some gentle ridicule as I stood my ground and witnessed to the resurrection of Jesus. Not only that, I found few of the other participants actually believed in Jesus as God and in God as a Trinitarian relationship – theirs had become a monotheistic faith in one Creator, much like Judaism and Islam.

More and more today, we will be called to live the words of Jesus in today’s gospel – we will be called before others, questioned because of our belief, and will have to rely on the Spirit to speak through us, as the Spirit did for Stephen.

The Eucharist is our spiritual strength to face the challenges of a disbelieving world we encounter every day. So, as we celebrate this feast of the first martyr of the Church, let us resolve to remain committed to our Trinitarian faith, to loving the world unconditionally, as God did through Jesus, and live Calvary in slow motion when necessary.