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Saint Stephen: The First Martyr

Today is the Feast Day of Saint Stephen, the First Christian Martyr


Episode Transcript

In the Catholic church, December 26th is the feast day of saint Stephen. Stephen is recognized as one of the first ordained deacons in the church and as the first Christian martyr.

The account of his martyrdom is captured in the Acts of the Apostle. Now the term martyr itself comes from the Greek word meaning witness. This is a reminder for all of us that we all have a Christian witness. We're all called to testify to our faith in our lives and through our actions. Now we're all not called to be martyrs, of course.

The people who give their lives for their faith are the ultimate witnesses, and the church has honored them throughout history. Now I mentioned that the martyrdom of Stephen occurs in Acts of the Apostles. It's in it's found in chapter 7, and the amazing thing that Stephen does during this his own stoning imagine people picking up stones and throwing them at you, and then it's hitting you in the head.

He is forgiving them as this is happening. And this echoes, of course, what Jesus did on the cross when he said, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. So Stephen has incredible boldness, but he also is full of forgiveness.

And I I think a lot of times in our lives, we we forgive people that have hurt us, but it is someone who is able to forgive while the act is happening to you, right, while while they are harming you to be forgiving simultaneously in real time is amazing, and only, I think, possible when someone is full of the Holy Spirit.

Now what happened with Stephen, he was very effect he's a very effective preacher, and opposition began to arise from certain certain Jews, particularly, the synagogue. They accused Stephen of blasphemy, and he had a trial.

He was put on trial before the Sanhedrin, and he gave a very powerful defense. He traced the history of Israel, and he accused the people who put him on trial of resisting the Holy Spirit and betraying the prophets.

These were fighting words. I mean, these, people that were trying to put him on trial were probably shocked, but and Steven knows, I'm sure, the what's going to happen to him.

He knows he's not gonna just say these powerful words and accusations against the elite rulers of this religious society and walk out alive, but he has this incredible boldness, and he preaches Jesus right until the end. He has a vision of Jesus standing at god's right hand. And when he says this, that that enrages, the people even more that have him on trial, and it leads to his immediate on the spot execution by stoning. What a witness saint Stephen gives us, and I always find it interesting that his, feast day is the day after Christmas.

We celebrate the birth of Christ, not just on December 25th, but throughout, the Christmas liturgical season up to the epiphany. But right after we celebrate this, we're reminded right right before we begin our Christmas celebration on December 25th, we are reminded that following Jesus sometimes requires everything we have.

And we look at the example of Saint Stephen and and we just pray that we are filled with his eloquence, his courage, and his determination if we're ever faced in a in a similar situation that, we're able to preach Jesus right up until the end.

And we say, Saint Stephen, pray for us.