Stephen, Deacon and First Martyr

Today the Church celebrates the feast of Stephen, deacon and first martyr, who served Christ among the needy and commended his killers to the mercy of the Lord.

As the number of disciples grew in Jerusalem, a grievance arose within the Church. The Greek-speaking believers complained that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. The apostles called the community together and asked them to choose seven men of good standing, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, to take responsibility for this work.

Stephen was the first of them named. The community brought the seven before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands upon them. The apostles then appointed the seven to oversee the daily distribution so that the widows who had been neglected would receive their share.

Stephen was full of grace and power. God worked wonders through him, and he spoke with a wisdom that his opponents could not overcome. Members of a synagogue whose people came from several regions disputed with him. When they could not answer him, they persuaded men to accuse him of blasphemy against Moses and God.

Stephen’s opponents stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes. They seized him and brought him before the Sanhedrin, Jerusalem’s governing council. False witnesses accused him of speaking against the Temple and the law. They claimed that he had said Jesus would destroy the holy place and change the customs Moses had handed down.

Those who watched Stephen saw his face like the face of an angel.

The high priest asked him to answer the charges. Stephen began with Abraham and told the story of God’s faithfulness to Israel. God had called Abraham before he possessed the promised land. God had been with Joseph in Egypt and had sent Moses to deliver his people from slavery. In the wilderness, the people had received God’s living words, yet had turned toward idols.

Stephen spoke of the tent of God’s presence and of the Temple Solomon had built. The Most High, he declared, could not be confined within a house made by human hands. Heaven was his throne and earth his footstool.

Then Stephen confronted the council. He accused its members of resisting the Holy Spirit and told them that they had betrayed and killed the Righteous One whom the prophets had foretold. He said that they had received the law and had not kept it.

His hearers were furious. But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked into heaven. He saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at God’s right hand. He told them that he saw the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing there.

They cried out, stopped their ears, and rushed upon him. They dragged him outside the city and began to stone him. The witnesses laid their outer garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

As the stones struck him, Stephen called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt and cried with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Having prayed for those who were killing him, he died.

Devout men buried Stephen and mourned him deeply. Persecution scattered the believers beyond Jerusalem, and those who fled carried the Gospel with them. Saul approved of the killing and joined in the persecution. The risen Christ would later call him into the faith he had tried to destroy.

The Spirit who had filled Stephen’s service filled his last prayer. His Lord stood before him in glory, and Stephen entrusted even his enemies to that Lord’s mercy. May Christ form such love in us, making us attentive to those who are neglected and faithful when bearing witness costs us dearly.