A witness for Christ

St Stephen

Right after Christmas, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St. Stephen, the deacon from the Acts of the Apostles whose death as the first Christian martyr is recounted in today’s first reading. The word ‘martyr’ is simply the Greek term for ‘witness.’ The martyrs were those who bore witness to Jesus’ saving work even with their own lives. The witness of the martyrs calls all Christians to live more radically the life of forgiveness and love that Christ teaches us. Nor is that witness solely from the distant past. The feast of St. Stephen coming just after the birth of Christ bears a certain witness of its own to the deep connection between martyrdom and Christianity, a connection see still in our own lifetimes.

By some scholarly estimates, the number of Christian martyrs in the 20th century exceeded that of Christian martyrs in all the previous centuries of the history of the religion combined. According to CNN’s Vatican correspondent, John Allen Jr., since the year 2000, high estimates average one Christian dying for her faith every five minutes, low estimates average one martyr per hour. They are to be found throughout the globe. This past year, two Jesuit educators were killed in the schools where they worked: in Peru, the retired principal of the Valentín Salegui School, Fr. Carlos Riudavets Montes, S.J.; in South Sudan, the principal of Mazzolari Teachers College, Fr. Victor-Luke Odhiambo, S.J.

What does their witness have to do with the Infant so newly placed in the manger in Bethlehem? In contemplating that newborn, Christians see the God who has come to embrace all of our sufferings and trials, even our deaths. That newborn will flee persecution with Mary and Joseph in a matter of days. He will spend the first part of his life as a refugee in Egypt. That newborn will one day perform miracle after miracle to prove not only that he is the Son of God, but that he has come that we might all call God ‘Father’ as he does, that we might in truth be called children of God. As the poet St. Robert Southwell, another Jesuit martyr, would write, that newborn will be the one “Who loved our love more than his life, and love with life did buy.” That Infant will be the first fruits of those raised to new life from the dead, the hope of all who fall asleep in Him (1 Cor 15:20). Today on the feast of St. Stephen, let us pray for those Christians who will die today for their faith in the power of that Infant’s love. Let us pray for an end to all violence, especially that which is so diabolically rationalized for religious purposes. Lastly, let us pray as every martyr after Stephen has, following Christ, for the spirit of forgiveness, even for those we call enemies. Let us pray to see them as Christ does, to love them as Christ loves them.

Author: Thomas Croteau, S.J., Theology Department