On The Feast of Stephan

THE STONING OF ST. STEPHAN

Here we are on this day after Christmas, December 26, 2015 which is celebrated in the Catholic Church and many of the main line denominations as the Feast of St. Stephan. We are all at home warm and fuzzy, presents proudly displayed under the Christmas tree.  Christmas dinner is a fond memory and inside us there is a gentle feeling of peace.  Then it happens. The Church sends us to read about Stephan in the Acts of the Apostles.  Stephan is talking to the same people that not too long ago had Jesus crucified.  Yet Stephan is proclaiming the Gospel to them.  They can hardly keep their anger in check.  But then Stephan goes to far. He tells them that he sees Jesus ruling at the right hand of God.  This is too much for them to bear.  Stephan is snatched up and taken outside of the town and stoned to death as a blasphemer.  The accusers had the duty of throwing the first stone so they took off their cloaks and laid them at the feet of one named Saul of Tarsus who of course later would become Paul. 

The feast of Stephan reminds us that being a Christian is not something that will be easy. We have to proclaim the Gospel and yes, we care called to back up the story with our very lives. Today, in the middle east Christians of all sorts are being martyred for being a Christian.  Sometimes they are being killed outright and sometimes they are being forced to flee the homes their ancestors have occupied for a thousand years or more. 

We have to pray to the Lord our God for the persecution to end, for peace to be restored in the troubled area, and we have to pray for the people undergoing the ultimate test of their Christian faith. 

I  would also suggest that we pray for ourselves that we not be placed into the situation we find our brothers and sisters of the middle east in and for the courage to shout out for justice wherever we see injustice and to give love back to those who hate us as Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord has taught us to do. 

God bless you and yours during this Christmas season.

Thirty Thousand different denominations make up the Christian community in America.  The largest of these is the Roman Catholic Church.  The Convert-a-Catholic Challenge is still going on.  I am challenging my Protestant brothers and sisters to convert me to their denomination.  Click here to get the ball rolling.  Convince me and  maybe next Sunday I will worshiping at a church that bears your denominations name. Prove to me that the Catholic Church is wrong in any one belief and that will be enough for me.