Feast of Saint Stephen, First Martyr – A

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord give you peace as we continue the Octave of Christmas. We are in the second day. We celebrate the beautiful feast of the first martyr, the first adult to give his life as a witness, as a testimony to Christ.

I say the first adult because normally we consider the Holy Innocents, those babies who died while Christ was still a child, on account of Christ, because of the diabolical nature of King Herod’s pride and attachment to power, which saw to the demise of these children as he was hunting down the Christ Child (cf. Mt 2:16–18).

And so, my brothers and sisters, in today’s readings we hear the beautiful story of Saint Stephen and what led to his martyrdom, his glorious martyrdom, for the sake of Christ, who is “the truth, the way, and the life” (Jn 14:6). And we too, like him, are called to stand up for the truth, to speak the truth in season and out of season (cf. 2 Tm 4:2), but to know that it may come at a cost.

Some of us lose relationships over this. Some of us have been disowned by family members, even parents. Saint Francis, for example, was disowned by his father. And I know many people who have been disowned by their closest loved ones on account of their faith. But then, our very lives may also hang in the balance.

And so, Stephen, taking the lead of Our Lord Himself, walks onto the battleground of truth, bringing the truth to the world. As Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate and Pilate asked Him, “Are you a king?” and Jesus answered, “I am, and for this reason I was born: to bear witness to the truth” (cf. Jn 18:37). What is the truth? Jesus is the truth, the way, and the life, and life everlasting (Jn 14:6), not just for fifty, sixty, or seventy years, but forever and ever.

To put it into a bit of context for you, the truth that Jesus is brings us to an eternity with Him. When we speak of eternity, we mean that even when this universe dies out in trillions and trillions of years, you and I, our souls—and even our bodies—will endure, because Jesus promised that He would raise even our bodies. “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (Jn 6:54).

So this is what hangs in the balance, not just sixty, seventy, or eighty years. When we defend the truth, we are securing our eternal beatitude, our salvation, to be with God forever, with the Mother of God, with all the saints—Saint Joseph, the apostles, the martyrs—all the angels: Saint Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, the seraphim, cherubim, thrones, principalities, powers, and virtues, forever and ever in eternal Paradise.

My brothers and sisters, if that is not worth the fight, I do not know what is.

Those who call you crazy for believing in a God you cannot see are often the same people who will tell you that this universe sprang into being on its own, without a cause. And that, my friends, is truly irrational. It is like saying trees came from nowhere, that we simply popped into existence without parents, that mountains appeared out of nothing. When you negate the existence of God, you negate causality itself. And that is why the psalmist says, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Ps 14:1).

Saint Stephen knew better. He not only believed in God, but in God’s will and plan, and in the fact that He descended from Heaven to be in our midst, which is what we celebrated yesterday at Christmas (cf. Jn 1:14). He believed wholeheartedly that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah.

Many of his contemporaries rejected this, especially members of the so-called Synagogue of the Freedmen—Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others from Cilicia and Asia—who debated with Stephen. “But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke” (Acts 6:10). When they heard him, they were enraged, because the truth cuts to the bone. That is why Saint Paul describes the Word of God as “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword” (Heb 4:12).

Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently to Heaven and “saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55). And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56).

They rushed upon him, threw him out of the city, and began to stone him. “And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’” (Acts 7:59). Here is a man chosen to serve as one of the first deacons of the Church, who laid down his life and has now reigned in Heaven for nearly two thousand years, in unimaginable peace and joy.