Memorial of Saint Stephen, deacon and first martyr. Read more
Memorial of Saint Stephen, deacon and first martyr.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Glory to God in the highest
and peace on earth to the people he loves.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Matthew 10,17-22
'Be prepared for people to hand you over to sanhedrins and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, as evidence to them and to the gentiles. But when you are handed over, do not worry about how to speak or what to say; what you are to say will be given to you when the time comes, because it is not you who will be speaking; the Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you. 'Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will come forward against their parents and have them put to death. You will be universally hated on account of my name; but anyone who stands firm to the end will be saved.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The day after Christmas, the liturgy commemorates the killing of Stephen, the first martyr. The Church considers his martyrdom the first fruit of the love of the Father who sent his Son to earth to save us. The memory of the martyrs helps us to reflect on the fruits of the incarnation of the Son of God: to bring men and women into the heaven of love and to make all be born again into the heaven of God, which is a heaven of peace and fraternity. The Gospel of this day reminds us of Jesus' statement to the Twelve: "I send you out as sheep among wolves." Hearing these words of the Master, the disciples became worried. But Jesus reassured them, saying that he would be with them forever. Stephen was the first of the witnesses, the first who gave his life for the Gospel, in imitation of the master. A fellow disciple of Paul in the school of Gamaliel, Stephen had followed the preaching of the Apostles and was then chosen from among the seven deacons for the service of charity especially to widows. The Acts of the Apostles narrate that he was "full of grace and power, doing great wonders and signs among the people." He could not silence the Gospel that he had received and that had first changed his life. He did not give up when opposition and violence came upon him. Strong in his faith, Stephen continued to bear witness to the Gospel, even to the shedding of blood. Following Jesus' example, while being stoned to death, he asked God to accept his spirit and forgive his persecutors. Having become the first martyr in Christian history, Stephen leads the procession of all those who, in every place and time, have witnessed and continue to witness to the Gospel to the ultimate sacrifice of their lives. All of them have contemplated 'the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." Today they stand in the heavens and see God "face to face" and confirm to us that without 'heroism' it is not possible to be Jesus 'disciples.
Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!
For the sick, in memory of the dead, for peace
