Feast of St. Stephen 2009

The first day after Christmas is not Boxing Day when people unwrap the Christmas presents they receive. Rather, it is the feast day of the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen of Jerusalem. His story is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.

When the number of believers in Jerusalem increased, the Apostles had to deal with a practical internal problem.
Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists murmured against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution (Acts 6:1).
The disputes between Jewish Christians (the Hebrews) and Greek-speaking Jewish Christians (the Hellenists) were disputes between local Jews and overseas Jews who came back to Jerusalem on pilgrimage, joined the Jesus movement and stayed behind. Hellenist widows being neglected was only a trigger. Just imagine. The Hebrews sold all their property and donated the money to the Apostles to distribute. What had these Hellenists donated? Would they go home, sell their property and travel back to Jerusalem to donate all the proceeds to the Apostles? At first, the Hebrews might be generous. After all, Jesus would soon return. However, when Jesus kept postponing and the number of believers kept increasing, it was not going to be easy to defuse the dissatisfaction.
The believers then selected seven Greek-speaking helpers who were men of good repute, full of the Spirit and wisdom (Acts 6:3). To them the Twelve delegated authority to handle this alms distribution business (Acts 6:6). Perhaps they had to be fund-raisers as well.
They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch (Acts 6:5b).
Among them, the stories of Stephen and Philip are recorded in the Acts. Stephen was more than a server at the table (Acts 6:2).
And Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.
Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, arose and disputed with Stephen.
But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke (Acts 6:8-10).

From the Acts, we know that Stephen was a man of good repute. He was full of faith, wisdom and power. So far, only the apostles were able to work miracles. Stephen was the exception. Luke applied the word grace χάριτος to Stephen.
In the gospel of Luke, the word χάρις is used in 8 verses and is translated as favour. In Acts, it appears in 17 verses, 8 of which are translated as grace. It refers to the special favour granted by God.
Stephen made good use of the grace granted him by God. He engaged in disputes with those Greek-speaking Jews and earned his martyrdom. They brought him in front of the High Priest in the Jewish Council, accusing him of blaspheming Moses, the Torah and the Temple. His speech recorded in Acts 7 was a Christian view of Jewish history. Even before Stephen was able to mention the message of Jesus of Nazareth, he was already stoned to death. Luke said that Stephen was speaking with wisdom and the Holy Spirit (Acts 6:10). Stephen was a good instrument of the Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord, You have chosen and given us St. Stephen to be Your good Deacon. Hear his prayers.
St. Stephen, pray for all the deacons that they will follow your footsteps, each making good use of the grace the Lord grant him to bear witness to His great love for the needy. Amen.