Sunday, December 26, 2010

December 26 -- St. Stephen

St. Stephen has the immense honor of being the first martyr of the Catholic Church. He was a man of purity and strength , a great preacher of the Faith.  God worked many miracles through him. 

These converted many of good faith and angered those of evil intent.  The latter hated St. Stephen and tried to upset his apostolate with sophisms and tricks, to no avail.  This angered and confused the faithless ones and they vented their hatred on him. 

Why?  The reason is precisely because St. Stephen spoke goodness and truth, the opposite of evil and error.  Evil people love evil and fight the good.  This attitude resulted in the stoning of St. Stephen. He was martyred because he loved God and wished that others would love Him. 

St. Stephen could be called " a second Lamb of God".   Let us pray to St. Stephen asking for courage to speak Truth and to act in goodness no matter the consequence. 

Let us also ask Our Lady to be shrewd in knowing good and evil -- in being as intransigent against evil as the evil is against the good.

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