St. Stephen - c. 33

We'll begin our look at the lives (and deaths) of martyrs with the story of St. Stephen, since he was the first Christian martyr. Stephen lived at the same time as Our Lord, and, in fact, died about the same year as Jesus Himself was crucified! He may (or may not) have even met Jesus Himself during His earthly ministry.

After Jesus had come, preaching about God, and how to love God and each other, He was crucified. But, since, not being just a normal human being, but, in fact, God Himself, He rose again on the Third day. After this, He commissioned His disciples to complete the work He had started, and to build His Church. He promised them the Holy Spirit, so that they would be able to accomplish His mission.

And so the Church began, on the day of Pentecost, as the Holy Spirit descended and filled the believers. And they, empowered by Him, went out and preached about Jesus, and His love and forgiveness. And many people believed in Him. But the Church knew it was not enough simply to proclaim God's love, but to actually live it out. And the early church in Jerusalem did this radically. Christians would even sell their own valued possessions, and use the money to buy food for the poor! Think about that: going home, and selling your television, your Xbox, your skateboard, your car, or even the computer on which you're reading this! And then, use that money to go and benefit the poor and needy around you!

This is what the earliest Christians were doing. But before long, a problem arose: The early Christians were Jewish, and as they did these loving acts, they made sure that the poor Jewish people of Jerusalem were looked after. But the problem was this: Not all those who lived in Jerusalem were Jewish. And there were many poor Greek people who also were in need. So they came to St. Peter, and asked him to make sure that they wouldn't be overlooked in the daily distribution of food. St. Peter said to them, "I have to run this whole Church, and study the Scriptures in order to teach about Jesus. I can't wait tables, too! But this is a serious problem, so here's what we'll do. We'll appoint seven men to be Deacons, and their job will be to make sure that everyone is looked after fairly and properly.

(Notably, the Catholic Church still ordains Deacons, and their primary vocation is still social justice in the community and in the world--and it began with these seven men, in Acts chapter 6!)

The very first person picked as a Deacon was St. Stephen, and he was chosen, according to the Bible, because he was "full of faith and of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 6:5). The Holy Spirit working in Stephen gave him the humility, the courage, and the love to reach out to the poor with kindness. Now, Stephen was a bright and handy fellow. He could have made a career doing anything. He could have made a terrific living for himself, and been considered very successful in the world's eyes. But instead, he gave it up, in order to serve the poor and lowly. And this choice led many people to wonder about him. What would make a person choose to live a life like that? And they would ask Stephen about it, and he would answer, "A couple of years ago, there was this guy, Jesus, who came, and taught us how to love. He was amazing, doing miracles and wowing everyone. But the authorities became jealous and angry at Him, because He made them aware of their need to change. And rather than change themselves, they chose instead to kill Him. They crucified Him, but He rose again, and told us to carry on preaching and acting out God's love. And because of Him, and His love for us, I'm here helping the poor."

And whenever Stephen had the opportunity, he would tell people about Jesus. But, as I said, Jesus had only been crucified earlier that year. And those people who didn't like Jesus were still alive, and they still didn't like Jesus. And they weren't too fond of those people who talked about Him. So they came to Stephen and they said, "We don't want you talkin' about Jesus anymore. Quit it." And Stephen said, "Uh, no. I love Jesus way too much to stop talkin' about Him." So they said again, "Shut up, or we'll make you shut up!" Stephen replied, "Jesus is just too awesome for me to stop talking about Him!"

But you can't just kill someone who devotes his whole life to serving the poor! Someone like that has way too much respect in society. So his enemies plotted amongst themselves, and they started making up lies about horrible things that Stephen supposedly had done. And they told the authorities, and came back to Stephen, and said, "Because of all the horrible things we say you did, we're going to kill you," and they picked up stones to throw at him.

Now, I don't know about you, but if someone made up a bunch of lies about what a horrible person I am, and began throwing rocks at my head because of it, my first response would be to pick up my own rocks and throw them right back: "Oh, it's on, now!"

But as the mob was stoning Stephen, he did not retaliate, but instead prayed, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And as he died, he saw a vision, of Jesus standing up in Heaven, welcoming him home (Acts 7:60, 56).

Now, while the world might consider a person who gives up everything in life to follow God, and then ends up killed for it, a colossal failure, we recognise St. Stephen as a great hero. The reason we do so, is because we recognise that Stephen's death is not the end of the story.

As Stephen was being Crucified, he prayed for God to forgive his very killers! That kind of love can only come from the Holy Spirit in one's life! But the amazing thing is, all of us who are Christian have that same Holy Spirit! And as we grow closer to Him, and make ourselves more available to Him, we too will be filled with that same love that Stephen showed. And that love will have serious effects, as we see from Stephen's story. Because as Stephen was being stoned, one of the people in the crowd, one who had a rather large part in instigating the stoning, was a man named Saul.

Now Saul was rather anti-Christian. So much so that, after Stephen died, he went around trying to arrest and even kill other Christians. One such mission of his took him to a town called Damascus--but on the way, Saul had an encounter with Jesus. As he travelled, Saul saw a bright light that knocked him right off his horse, and heard Jesus say to him, "Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" Saul didn't know what to say, and so replied, "Who are You, Lord?" Jesus replied that He was Jesus, and that Saul would go on to Damascus to seek out a Christian, but not to kill him, but rather, this person, Ananias, would pray for him and baptise him, and Saul would become a great witness to Jesus!

In this remarkable way, Jesus answered the prayer of Stephen to forgive his killers, which Stephen prayed as he died, and let me tell you, continued to pray after he arrived in heaven! And Saul was the first one to receive the grace of those prayers, when he was baptised in Damascus, and changed his name from Saul, to Paul.

It was this Apostle Paul who spread the faith throughout the Roman Empire, starting many, many churches, writing nearly half of the New Testament, and finally, dying as a martyr himself, beheaded by the Emperor Nero! This is the legacy that St. Stephen's martyrdom gave to the Church!

And each of us, through the Holy Spirit, are able to live such a heroic life of faith, and to impact our generation with the Gospel of Jesus Christ! We need only to be willing to yield our own lives to the Holy Spirit inside of us!

God bless!