Reflection for December 26
Anonymous, published January 1485
Only yesterday it was Christmas. Lights, carols, bells, children, the infant Jesus, the newborn Christ. It should still be Christmas. I should still have “the Christmas spirit.” I still belong in Bethlehem, swaddled in sentiment.
Instead, I awake in Jerusalem, to a scene of savage zealotry, the stoning of a saint who offers his life to yesterday’s holy babe, newly crucified and risen. In what is left of my Christmas spirit, I wonder what on earth the Church was thinking in placing the martyrdom of Stephen on the day after the birth of Jesus. Then I realize that the Church is teaching me something, something essential I need to know on the day after Christmas, on every day after Christmas. Looking more closely at the scene laid out in today’s first reading, I see a man of peace, filled with the Holy Spirit, laying down his life. I also see murderous men of hate laying down their cloaks at the feet of a misguided fanatic named Saul.
Could it be that Stephen embodies the spirit of Christmas, come of age? The meaning of Christmas revealed? The answer lies in today’s gospel where Jesus makes clear that those who follow him will, like Stephen, find themselves dragged into courts, brought before false judges, handed over to violent men, and made to suffer all manner of torment, even death.
The Church today is a stern teacher with a hard message. She stirs us from the sugar coma of Xmas commercialism and Yuletide sentimentality to the inescapable truth that the babe born on Christmas brings not only love and peace but also division. He requires us, today and every day, to listen to his words, imitate his life, surrender ourselves to him, become instruments of his justice, kindness, and compassion, and to let him speak through us.
Turning from today’s readings to today’s news, I see men of violence, in great numbers, laying down their cloaks before Saul.
Beginning with myself, I ask where is Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, calling out, on all our behalves “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
Bob Meagher