Morning Devotion for Christmastide
Monday December 27, 2021
The Feast of Saint Stephen
The Invitatory
Behold, the dwelling of God is with mankind. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them, and be their God.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end.
Amen.
Alleluia. To us a child is born: Come let us adore him. Alleluia.
Reading: Acts 6:8-7:2a,51c-60
Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and argued with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke. Then they secretly instigated some men to say, "We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God." They stirred up the people as well as the elders and the scribes; then they suddenly confronted him, seized him, and brought him before the council. They set up false witnesses who said, "This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us." And all who sat in the council looked intently at him, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
Then the high priest asked him, "Are these things so?"
And Stephen replied: "Brothers and fathers, listen to me. You are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it."
When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen. But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. "Look," he said, "I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he died.
Meditation – Michael Palmisano
“To put it bluntly, a society that has forgotten how to honor the bodies of those who have departed is more inclined to neglect, even torture, the bodies of those still living. A society that has no firm hope where the dead are going is also unsure how to take the hands of its children and lead them toward a hopeful future” (Thomas Long).
Thomas Long, one of the most prolific preachers in the English-speaking world, wrote these words as an attempt to underscore the importance of the Christian funeral. It feels very fitting on the feast of Saint Stephen – the first Christian martyr – to focus upon the Christian funeral and our hope for eternity. People of various religious persuasions (or lack thereof) around the world rehearse ritual practices of funeral and burials for many and various reasons, but the liturgical movements of Christian funerals and burials uniquely proclaim by word and deed our hope for a shared life in eternity with Christ our Lord.
Through the liturgies of Christian funeral and burial all the faithful departed are recognized as martyrs of Christ our Lord. Martyrs – as the Greek would have it – are literally “witnesses” of Jesus Christ. We memorialize Christian martyrs neither for the life they lived nor the death they died. Rather, a martyr of the Good News of Jesus Christ is remembered for the life and death of Christ known through them.
Looking through the person of Saint Stephen – and countless other men and women after him – we can see someone else. Looking through the person of Stephen we can behold the One God with whom we share both life and death. Even when Stephen is put to an end, even though we will all share this same end, in his final moment of witness just as in his life, we can steal a glimpse of the most overwhelming and all-encompassing of mysteries. Our hope – in life and death – is not so much to be remembered but to point others towards the remembrance of someone else. Our lives and our deaths are given over to the One who gave them to us.
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Closing Prayer
We give you thanks, O Lord of glory, for the example of the first martyr Stephen, who looked up to heaven and prayed for his persecutors to your Son Jesus Christ, who stands at your right hand; where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
