Beholding the Christ Child in the Proto-Martyr: a homily for Saint Stephen's Day

Beholding the Christ Child in the Proto-Martyr

At the early Eucharist on Saint Stephen's Day, 2021

Acts 7:51-60

Yesterday we were gazing upon the Christ Child in the Manger and hearing the song of the angels.

Today, Saint Stephen’s Day, our readings set before us something that seems dramatically different - the death of the first Christian martyr. It seems all very unseasonable, unfestive.

Why can we not continue at the Manger, gazing upon the Christ Child?

Why, on the very day after Christmas Day, are we brought to an event decades later? Not to a birth, but to a death. Not to the warmth of the Manger and a Mother’s love, but to the cruelty of a mob and a bitter death.

Does the Church’s decision to commemorate Saint Stephen the Martyr on 26th December not distract us from the celebration of the Lord’s Nativity? Would Saint Stephen’s Day not best be placed at some other, more appropriate time of the year? Then we could continue at the Manger, gazing upon the Christ Child.

On this Saint Stephen’s Day, however, that is precisely what we do. For as we commemorate the first Christian martyr, we are indeed brought again before the Manger, we are again brought to gaze upon the Christ Child.

The martyrdom of Saint Stephen vividly, powerfully reminds us that the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ was not in a fantasy-land of sentiment and cosy safety, but in this world, this world broken and shadowed by fear and violence, anger and prejudice, pain and loss.

It was in this world, amidst fear and violence, anger and prejudice, pain and loss, that Saint Stephen saw “the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God”. He saw, in other words, what the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, and the shepherds saw on Christmas Day: the glory of the Eternal God manifested in the person of Jesus, Son of Mary.

It was in this world, amidst fear and violence, anger and prejudice, pain and loss, that Saint Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”. Here is the truth of Christmas, that God has drawn unimaginably close to us, in this world, in all of our experiences in good times and bad, when life is well and when it is marked by failure, in life and in death.

It was in this world, amidst fear and violence, anger and prejudice, pain and loss, that Saint Stephen showed grace and forgiveness towards his persecutors: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them”. Here is the truth of Christmas, that we behold in the Christ Child the grace, mercy, and forgiveness of God extended to us, we who know all too well what it is to be angry and resentful, unloving and unkind, malicious and harsh.

It is no mistake that, on the day after Christmas Day, we commemorate Stephen the Martyr, for in the witness of Saint Stephen we gaze upon the Christ Child: God revealed not in a safe fantasy-land but in this world; God with us in all our experiences in this world, from life’s beginning to its end; the mercy of God touches us in the reality of sin and failure.

On this Saint Stephen’s Day, in the witness of the first Christian martyr, we behold how the Christ Child touches and transforms lives in a world shadowed, fearful, and broken.

So let us, in heart and soul, with Saint Stephen, through the love poured out in the Christ Child, enter more fully into the life of God, that our lives may share the grace and peace of Christmas.

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After a short break for the festive season, laudable Practice will return on 3rd January, the Year of Our Lord 2022.

Merry Christmas.

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