26 December 2022

Feast of Saint Stephen, First Martyr

Throughout this whole week of the Christmas Octave, we celebrate and meditate on the mystery of heaven come to earth in the person of Jesus Christ. By bringing heaven to earth, Jesus has made it possible for us to live on earth as in heaven, and he has made us sons and daughters of the Father by the gift of his Spirit, the same Spirit he gave back to the Father when he breathed his last upon the Cross.

It is because we have received the gift of the Spirit that Jesus tells us not to worry about what we are to say when we are handed over to persecution; we simply need to speak out of that relationship of love that the Spirit has brought us into. So it was with Stephen as he testified to Christ while being stoned to death and he saw heaven opened before him.

Today, let us meditate on the mystery of being made children of God by the divine Child whose birth we celebrated yesterday. And let us pray that he will give us his Spirit of sonship, so that we might have the sure knowledge of being safe in the Father’s hands no matter what trials we face.