Tuesday of the Third Week of Easter
Acts 7:51—8:1a; Psalm 31; John 6:30–35
Stephen was full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.
He was full of grace, full of power, full of light.
One would expect such a man to be welcomed, honored, protected.
But the world does not easily receive what comes from God.
Often it resists it. Often it fears it. Often it strikes what it cannot silence.
So Stephen walked the road his Master had already walked.
He was accused, as Jesus was accused. He stood before judges, as Jesus stood before them. He was surrounded by fury, as Jesus was surrounded.
And what condemned him?
A vision.
He saw the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.
The one whose eyes were lifted to heaven was thrown down upon the earth. The one who saw glory was covered with stones.
And yet, at that moment, Stephen resembled Christ more than ever.
For when stones fell on him, hatred did not rise from him. Prayer rose.
“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
See the mystery:
what the psalmist once entrusted to the Lord, And Jesus entrusted to the Father, Stephen entrusted to the risen Christ.
The prayer of Israel became the prayer of Jesus. The prayer of Jesus became the prayer of the martyr. The dying servant spoke with the voice of his dying Lord.
And not only with trust, but also with mercy.
For Stephen prayed for those who were killing him.
So he died as Christ died: with surrender on his lips and forgiveness in his heart.
“Into your hands.”
This is the prayer of the Crucified One. This is the prayer of Stephen. This is the prayer the Church teaches us at the close of day.
For every night is a little death, and every sleep a small surrender.
We close our eyes not knowing whether we shall see another dawn.
And yet we rest, placing our spirit into the hands of God.
But night is not the end.
Christ entered the sleep of death, but He did not remain there. He lay down in the tomb, and rose at dawn. Death received Him, but could not hold Him.
And this is our hope:
that the one who places his life into the hands of God is never lost.
For those hands are stronger than death, deeper than the grave, and faithful beyond all fear.
And these are not empty hands.
They are the hands of the One who also feeds us.
The Lord who receives our spirit gives us His Body.
“I am the bread of life.”
The one into whose hands Stephen surrendered himself is the same one who gives Himself for the life of the world.
Bread is gathered from many grains. Bread is broken so others may live. Bread is given to satisfy hunger.
So too Christ.
Broken on the cross, given in the Eucharist, received by the faithful, He becomes our life.
Thus the martyr dies with Christ on his lips, and the Church lives with Christ in her mouth.
To surrender our lives into the hands of God is not to lose them.
It is to place them where death cannot keep them.
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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