Gospel – Matthew 10:17-22
Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles.
When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and you will be hated by all, because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
The Gospel of the Lord
The Mass intention is for Mark Goonan, RIP
Reflection:
My friends the contrast is enormous. Yesterday, Christmas Day, we had the crib of the newly born child, with the singing of the angels and the visit of the shepherds.
Today here is the blood of Stephen, stoned to death, because he had the courage to believe in the promise expressed in the simplicity of the crib. Stephen criticized the fundamentalist interpretation of the Law of God and the monopoly of the Temple.
Today, which is the feast of Stephen, the first martyr, the liturgy presents us a passage from the Gospel of Matthew, taken from the Sermon of the Mission. In it, Jesus advises the disciples that fidelity to the Gospel implies difficulties and persecutions: “They will hand you over to the Sanhedrin and scourge you in their synagogues”.
But for Jesus, what is important in persecution is not the painful side of suffering, but rather the positive side of witnessing: “You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as evidence to them and to the Gentiles”. Persecution offers the occasion of giving witness of the Good News which God brings to us.
This is what happened to Stephen. He gave witness to his faith in Jesus to the last moment of his life. At the hour of his death he says: “I can see Heaven thrown open, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God”. And in falling dead under the stones, he imitated Jesus crying out: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!”
- Placing oneself in Stephen’s place, have you suffered, sometimes, because of your fidelity to the Gospel?
