Memory of Saint Stephen, deacon and first martyr
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Memory of Saint Stephen, deacon and first martyr
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Glory to God in the highest
and peace on earth to the people he loves.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Acts 7,55-8,4
But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God's right hand.
'Look! I can see heaven thrown open,' he said, 'and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God.'
All the members of the council shouted out and stopped their ears with their hands; then they made a concerted rush at him,
thrust him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses put down their clothes at the feet of a young man called Saul.
As they were stoning him, Stephen said in invocation, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.'
Then he knelt down and said aloud, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them.' And with these words he fell asleep.
Saul approved of the killing. That day a bitter persecution started against the church in Jerusalem, and everyone except the apostles scattered to the country districts of Judaea and Samaria.
There were some devout people, however, who buried Stephen and made great mourning for him.
Saul then began doing great harm to the church; he went from house to house arresting both men and women and sending them to prison.
Once they had scattered, they went from place to place preaching the good news.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The liturgical season of Christmas begins today. We just celebrated the holy mystery of the birth of Jesus. The Lord God became a child to save us. The liturgy invites us to contemplate the birth in heaven of the first Christian martyr. It is the ripe fruit of the preaching of evangelical love, the love that had brought the Son to leave heaven to come to earth. These days, starting today, through the memory of several witnesses, the church shows us the purpose of the incarnation of the Son of God. He came down on earth to bring men into the heaven of never-ending love. The passage of the Gospel that the liturgy is presenting to us in this memory of Stephen is part of the missionary discourse of Jesus to the Twelve. The disciples immediately understand the Master's words: "I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves." They did not have to worry though. He would be with them, and his Spirit would sustain them. Stephen is the first of the martyrs, the first lamb that is sacrificed, in imitation of the Master. Stephen, Paul’s fellow disciple from the school of Gamaliel, joined the Apostles in preaching and was then chosen as one the seven deacons for the service of charity. "Full of grace and power, he performed many miracles among the people," narrates the Acts of the Apostles. He could not silence the Gospel that he had received and that had changed his existence. Nor could he back down when opposition and violence rose up against him as a result of his new life. Oppositions did not intimidate him. Strong in faith, he continued to preach the Gospel until his blood was shed. While he was being stoned to death, he followed Jesus’ example by asking God to welcome his spirit and forgive his persecutors. Stephen, who became the first martyr of Christian history, leads the procession of all those who in every place and time have proclaimed and continue to proclaim the Gospel until they have given the ultimate sacrifice of their lives. All those who "gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God" are today in heaven and see God "face to face." The martyrs leave us with a precious example of how to listen to the Gospel in order to follow Jesus. They confirm for us that without at least some "heroism" we cannot follow the Gospel.
Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!
For the sick, in memory of the dead, for peace
