Martyrdom

“But beware of people, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 10: 17-22)

Today is the Feast of St. Stephen, First Martyr. I used to think it was strange that the Church would celebrate the first martyr on the day after Christmas but I read this quote by Blessed John Paul II and it now makes sense and is so beautiful. "The Church calls the day of martyrdom a ‘dies natalis’ (day of birth). Indeed, by virtue of Christ's death and Resurrection, the death of the martyr is a birth in Heaven. This is why it is so meaningful to celebrate the first martyr the day after Christmas: Jesus who was born in Bethlehem gave his life for us so that we too, reborn ‘from on high’ through faith and Baptism, might be willing to give up our own lives for love of our brothers and sisters’" (Blessed John Paul II, Angelus, Feast of St. Stephen, 2002). St. Stephen was filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit and spoke about something so incredible, he saw the heavens open up and “the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55). Yet the people didn’t want to hear it, they covered their ears and silenced him permanently. In his final words, he calls upon Christ to “receive his spirit”, almost the exact words of Christ to his heavenly Father as he breathed his last breath.

Although most of us won’t die being persecuted for our faith, we all will die, and hopefully it will be with Christ on our lips. I like to think that others recognize that I am a Christian through my actions but I know it isn’t always the case. One of the things that keeps me from speaking out at times is that I don’t want to be seen as a hypocrite. How can I speak about the precepts of the Church when I myself have not always followed them? But I shouldn’t let the sins of my past keep me from speaking the Truth. Just because I may have not followed them in the past or continue to struggle with them today, they are still the Truth and need to be spoken. Just because we speak the Truth doesn’t mean that we think we are “better” than others or are judging them. Admitting that I am a sinner and professing how merciful the Lord has been to me helps others to know Christ.