Acts of the Apostles, 6:8 – 7:1, and 7:53-60
And
Stephen, filled with the touch of the spirit and with divine power, performed
great deeds and signs of the spirit among the people. Then some of those who
belonged to the synagogues of the Libertines of the Jews from Cyrene,
Alexandria Cilicia, and Asia began to argue with Stephen, but they could not
withstand the wisdom and spirit of his words. Then they put forward men who
were to say, "We heard him speak derogatory words against Moses and
against God." Thus, they stirred up the people and the elders, and the
scribes.
Finally,
they went up to him, overpowered him, and led him before the Sanhedrin. They
put up false witnesses who said, "This man never ceases to revile the holy
place and the law. We have heard him say, 'Jesus, the Nazarene will destroy
this place and change the customs, which Moses gave us.' "
Then all who sat in the Sanhedrin looked at him, and they
saw his face shining
like the face of an angel.
 |
| Stoning of Stephen, Uccello |
While
they were listening, their hearts swelled in great agitation. And they ground
their teeth. Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw
the light of the revelation of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
And he said, "See, the heavens are opened to my beholding. I see the Son
of Man at the right hand of God."
Then they cried out with a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed upon him all together. They drove him out of the city and stoned him and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning him, Stephen said, "Jesus, Lord, receive my spirit." And he fell to his knees and called out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he breathed his last.
Christmas Season
Sunday, December 26, 2004
Acts of the Apostles 6:8-7:1, 7:53-60
So closely are life and death intertwined! Today [Dec 26] the day after we celebrate the divine birth, we remember the first person to die in Christ’s name.
Two days ago, December 24, was Adam and Eve Day. We remembered the apple of Paradise. Eaten before its time, it brought sickness and death to humanity. But hidden in an apple is a secret.
form. And this star in the apple is embedded within a white, five-petalled rose, the image of the pure blossom of the human body that emerges from thorny suffering.
In between Adam and Eve Day, and St Stephen’s Day, the Christ-Star descended into earth existence. Christ suffered life’s thorns and its death. He produced the pure white rose-form of a new kind of human existence.
And he offered this fruit of his to Stephen, whose face shines in gratitude like that of an angel, whose death is an example of the pure white rose of a new, forgiving humanity.
We all carry within us, like the apple, the secret image. In Rilke’s words:
We are only the rind and the
leaf
The great death, that each of
us carries inside
Is the fruit
Everything enfolds it. *
So in remembrance of Stephen, the first ordinary human being to die in the power of Christ, we can ask in Rilke’s words:
God give us each our own death
The dying that proceeds
From each of our lives
The way we loved
The meanings we made….**
May our lives and our deaths be fruitful. May we find and reveal the Rose and the Star within.
*Rilke, The Book of Hours, Macy
and Barrows, p.132
** Rilke, The Book of Hours,
Macy and Barrows, p. 131
