Fr. Ralph: On The Feast of Saint Stephen

It appears that St. Stephen was martyred when his religious zeal clashed with the religious zeal of his listeners.

So Jesus cautions us: Beware of men.

So even today, the church suffers persecution for many reasons. In the east, for it's loyalty to the kingdom of God before it's loyalty to the state

In the West, for the grave sins of its ministers, covered up by clericalism and for its insistence on respect for nascent human life

over personal or social choices.

None of this is new.

Before and after Constantine,

the church has been under fire for not giving first place to the powers of this world,

and for upholding the sacredness of marriage and sex

for its participation in God's act of creating human life.

And the Church has always had some great sinners in high places, even appointed by Jesus himself as Judas was.

The miracle is that the church has survived,

and that even some of the great sinners

have done heroic deeds to benefit God's kingdom.

Heroism, like physical martyrdom, is not given to most of us. The church has survived and will survive

because of simple members of the body of Christ like us
giving their witness by living His life in His way and in His Truth.

We can do that.

God became man, so that man could become God-like,
and if heroism calls to us like it did Stephen,

we can be ready.

Who but God knows what our future holds.

But if it does not call, we can be no less witnesses, no less holy.