The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary on the Feast of St. Stephen urge us to contemplate the gift of our spirit and how that gift may not always be received with the generosity intended in the giving.
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| Gifts of our Spirit |
The reading from the Book of Acts describes the arrest of Stephen and the accusation against him that led to the stoning of the first martyr.
* [6:13] False witnesses: here, and in his account of Stephen’s execution (Acts 7:54–60), Luke parallels the martyrdom of Stephen with the death of Jesus.1
* [7:57] Covered their ears: Stephen’s declaration, like that of Jesus, is a scandal to the court, which regards it as blasphemy.2
The psalmist declares God as “my rock and my fortress” in Psalm 31 that includes the trust of declaring “into your hands I commend my spirit.”
* [31:6] Into your hands I commend my spirit: in Lk 23:46 Jesus breathes his last with this Psalm verse. Stephen in Acts 7:59 alludes to these words as he is attacked by enemies. The verse is used as an antiphon in the Divine Office at Compline, the last prayer of the day.3
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus warns of coming persecutions declaring that the one who endures to the end will be saved.
* [10:22] To the end: the original meaning was probably “until the parousia.” But it is not likely that Matthew expected no missionary disciples to suffer death before then, since he envisages the martyrdom of other Christians (Mt 10:21). For him, the end is probably that of the individual’s life (see Mt 10:28).
Tamora Whitney comments that those who were disputing Stephen were furious because they could not withstand his wisdom. When he said he had a vision of Jesus standing at the right hand of God, they called it blasphemy and stoned him at the gates of Jerusalem. With his dying breath he forgave his assaulters and commended his spirit to the Lord. And to this day the feast of Stephen is a day for charity, generosity, and almsgiving.
Good king Wenceslaus went out on the feast of Stephen to deliver food and fuel to a poor man and encouraged his page to aid his charitable actions. The song ends, “You who will now bless the poor will yourselves find blessing.” In the United Kingdom Boxing day was set aside to give a small gift to those who have served you throughout the year. In Ireland Wren boys go house to house giving wren feathers for good luck in exchange for a treat, maybe a piece of Christmas cake. The first martyr St. Stephen’s dying charity has encouraged faith and charity around the world.5
Don Schwager quotes “Your Father speaks through you in every age,” by Saint Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"To be sure, we heard in that reading, 'But when they deliver you up, do not be anxious how or what you are to speak... for it is not you who are speaking but the Spirit of your Father who speaks through you.' And he says in another place: 'Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the world' (Matthew 28:20). Does this mean that the people who heard those words of the Lord would be here until the end of the world? The Lord was referring, rather, not only to those about to depart from this life but also to the others, including us and those who would come after us in this life. He saw everyone in his single body, and the words he spoke, 'I am with you even to the end of the world,' were heard by them and by us too. And if we did not hear them then in our knowledge, we heard them in his foreknowledge. Therefore, safe as sheep among the wolves, let us keep the commandments of him who directs us. And let us be 'innocent as doves but cautious as snakes' (Matthew 10:16). Innocent as doves that we may not harm anyone; cautious as snakes that we may be careful of letting anyone harm us." (excerpt from SERMON 64A.2)6
The Word Among Us Meditation on Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59 comments that it’s the token of affection embodied in the gift that has the most impact, along with the way you have put a little bit of yourself into the gift. Your hope, after all, is that the gift will help the recipient remember you fondly. You might say, in fact, that when we give a gift, it’s like saying, “Receive my spirit.”
Every day, courageous men and women around the world are offering their lives as a gift to the Lord—and it’s not just the martyrs. It can be everyday people like yourself as well. Think of all the ways you sacrifice for your loved ones. You put aside your preferences and defer to your spouse or your friends. You get up early to make sure things run smoothly, and sometimes you lose sleep praying for and worrying about the people in your life who are struggling. You bite your tongue, you change your plans, you forgive and forbear. And as you do each of these things, you can follow Stephen’s example and say to the Lord, “Receive my spirit.”7
Friar Jude Winkler connects St. Stephen to the establishment of the diaconate. An unlawful mob was responsible for Stephen’s death. Friar Jude reminds us that the call to conversion and giving witness is still a costly exercise for believers in our world.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, teaches that every time we take in a breath, we are repeating the pattern of taking spirit into matter, and thus repeating the first creation of Adam. And every time we breathe out, we are repeating the pattern of returning spirit to the material universe. In a way, every exhalation is a “little dying” as we pay the price of inspiriting the world. Our simple breathing models our entire vocation as a human being. Like Christ, we are an incarnation of matter and spirit operating as one. This, more than anything we believe or accomplish, is how all of us continue the mystery of incarnation in space and time—either knowingly and joyfully or not.
As the theologian St. Maximus the Confessor put it, “God made all beings to this end, to [enjoy the same union] of humanity and divinity that was united in Christ.” [1] Later, St. Gregory Palamas made it even more specific: “The transformation of our human nature, its deification and transfiguration—were these not accomplished in Christ from the start, from the moment in which He assumed our nature?” [2] These kinds of jewels are found much more in the writings of the Eastern church and its Fathers. St. Athanasius “the Father of Orthodoxy” put it this way: “God [in Christ] became the bearer of flesh [for a time] in order that [humanity] might become the bearer of Spirit forever.” [3] This was the Great Exchange. Jesus was meant to be the guarantee that divinity can indeed reside within humanity, which is always our great doubt and denial. And once we recognize that as possible, then most of our problems are already solved. Resurrection of both persons and planets becomes a foregone conclusion! What that exactly means, of course, I cannot possibly know (1 Corinthians 2:9), but our faith invites us to trust in it.8
What Fr Richard calls an incarnational worldview is the profound recognition of the presence of the divine in literally “every thing” and “every one.” It is the key to mental and spiritual health as well as to a kind of basic contentment and happiness. An incarnational worldview is the only way we can reconcile our inner worlds with the outer one, unity with diversity, physical with spiritual, individual with corporate, and divine with human.
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