Category: Courage

The Other Mary

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Discipleship, Eastertide, friendship, spirituality3 Comments

Monday in the Octave of Easter
April 10, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041023.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings remind us that the witness of others, and their faithful companionship, are incalculable gifts to strengthen our faith.

In the passage from Acts, Peter summons the ancient witness of David in attestation to the Resurrection. David is the perfect exponent, because Peter is speaking to the Jews whose faith is built on David’s heritage.

My brothers and sisters, one can confidently say to you
about the patriarch David that he died and was buried,
and his tomb is in our midst to this day.
But since he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn an oath to him
that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne,
he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ,
that neither was he abandoned to the netherworld
nor did his flesh see corruption.

Acts 2: 29-31

Our Responsorial Psalm recalls David’s Resurrection testimony, particularly these lines:

Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,
my body, too, abides in confidence;
Because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world,
nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.

You will show me the path to life,
fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.

Psalm 16: 9-11

Matthew’s Gospel retells the witness scene John gave us, allowing us a slightly different slant on the story:

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb,
fearful yet overjoyed,
and ran to announce the news to his disciples.
And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them.
They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage.
Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid.
Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, 
and there they will see me.”

Matthew 28:7-10

The Two Marys Watch the Tomb – James Tissot

Matthew incorporates the “other Mary” as a first witness to the Resurrection. How wonderful for that faithful disciple whoever she was!

We may not know her full name but we can be rather certain of this – she was Mary Magdalen’s treasured friend. “Other Mary” was the one Magdalen went to when she was just a little too afraid to go find Jesus all by herself. And “Other Mary” was close enough to Jesus that he chose her too to be a “First Witness” of the Resurrection.

“Other Mary” didn’t have the notoriety that Mary Magdalen had. Magdalen was prominent enough that she carried the name of her hometown. “Other Mary” didn’t have such a designation. She was probably a quieter, less recognized, but nevertheless invaluable contributor to the early Christian community.

We know the kind of person “Other Mary” was. We may be blessed with such friends and companions in our own lives, always there, always supportive, always faithful.

Perhaps we want to spend a little time in prayer with “Other Mary”, asking her to help us gratefully recognize those who have companioned us in our faith life.

We might ask her too to help us deepen our own steadfast presence to others in faith, hope and love.

Poetry: An Easter Flower Gift – John Greenleaf Whittier

O dearest bloom the seasons know,
Flowers of the Resurrection blow,
Our hope and faith restore;
And through the bitterness of death
And loss and sorrow, breathe a breath
Of life forevermore!

The thought of Love Immortal blends
With fond remembrances of friends;
In you, O sacred flowers,
By human love made doubly sweet,
The heavenly and the earthly meet,
The heart of Christ and ours!

Music: Bridge Over Troubled Waters – Simon and Garfunkel

Don’t Be Afraid

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Discipleship, Eastertide, spirituality1 Comment

Monday in the Octave of Easter
April 10, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041023.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we begin to read and relish the post-Resurrection stories.

As I begin my prayer with these stories, I am reminded of a sweet cartoon I recently saw on Facebook. The illustration showed an elderly couple relaxing outside a simple home. The woman is shelling peas; the man whittling some wood. The comment below the picture reads, “If only I could visit my grandparents one more time!”. 

Haven’t we all felt that way about someone dear who has died.  If only we could be with them one more time!

Well, that’s exactly what happens in these post-Resurrection stories. The disciples, and we, get to be with Jesus one more time:

  • to re-hear his Truth more clearly in the light of the Resurrection 
  • to get right the Gospel imperatives we might have missed in our distractions 
  • to heal the doubts which his suffering, and ours, may have caused us
  • to have our faith irrevocably affirmed by his real and transformed Presence

The Three Marys at the Tomb – WILLIAM-ADOLPHE BOUGUEREAU

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb,
fearful yet overjoyed,
and ran to announce the news to his disciples.
And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them.
They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage.
Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid.
Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, 
and there they will see me.”

Mark 28:8-10

Like Mary Magdalen and the “other Mary”, we too might be “fearful but overjoyed” at moments in our faith life – those moments when we are confronted with our own small Calvaries. 

But Jesus, filled with the glory of Resurrection, greets us on our way. He tells us too, “Do not be afraid” —— you will see me, risen in your life. And you will understand.

Prose: from Paula D’Arcy

Who would I be,
and what power
would be expressed in my life,
if I were not dominated by fear.

Music: Don’t Be Afraid – Mac Lynch

The Pretender

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Cross, Discipleship, Jesus, spirituality3 Comments

Wednesday of Holy  Week
April 5, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040523.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we stand beside Jesus in a tangled world of insults, violence,  plots, and dirty money. How sickening and painful such an atmosphere must have been to him who is Love and Divine Innocence. The psalmist describes the pain like this:

Insult has broken my heart, and I am weak,
I looked for sympathy, but there was none;
for consolers, not one could I find.
Rather they put gall in my food,
and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

Psalm 69: 21-22

Despite such trauma, we see Christ’s trust and holy determination to embrace the Father’s Will however it is revealed to him.

The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.

Isaiah 50:7

As we look to Jesus’s fidelity to find courage in our own challenges, we must also be starkly aware of what opposing infidelity looks like. We see it in the face of Judas – the Pretender who reclines at the Lord’s table, still eats the sacred food, dissembles his innocence while the blood-coins jingle in his pocket.

Once again, as the Passion story unfolds before us, we can find ourselves somewhere – perhaps many places – in its lines. Wherever that is, let us pray there with Jesus to be open in trust and fidelity to its transformative grace.

Poetry: Slow through the Dark – Paul Lawrence Dunbar

Slow moves the pageant of a climbing race;
   Their footsteps drag far, far below the height,
   And, unprevailing by their utmost might,
Seem faltering downward from each hard won place.
No strange, swift-sprung exception we; we trace
   A devious way thro’ dim, uncertain light,—
   Our hope, through the long vistaed years, a sight
Of that our Captain’s soul sees face to face.

   Who, faithless, faltering that the road is steep,
Now raiseth up his drear insistent cry?
   Who stoppeth here to spend a while in sleep
Or curseth that the storm obscures the sky?
   Heed not the darkness round you, dull and deep;
The clouds grow thickest when the summit’s nigh.

Music: The Betrayal of Judas – George Sviridov

The Promise and Hope

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Eternal Life, Faith, spiritualityLeave a comment

Memorial of Saint Anthony, Abbott
January 17, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/011723.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our passage from Hebrews is a strong encouragement to stay faithful to the hope that has been given us through our call.

eph1_17 call

Paul traces the evolution of that call by reminding his readers of Abraham who trusted God’s promise and patiently waited for its fulfillment. Paul says that God not only promised Abraham, God swore an oath to bless and multiply Abraham’s life.

This promise and oath of God’s faithful covenant is the root of our Christian hope, and the “anchor” of our life.

Green Rope

When we have been promised something by someone we trust, we are given the gift of freedom to move forward in confidence. I’ll give you a very simple and human example. When I had my first knee replacement, my very appropriately-named surgeon Dr. Good came and sat at my bedside immediately before surgery. He told me that he was going to perform the surgery himself and that he would support me until I was completely recovered. I can’t describe the freedom and confidence his promise gave me!

Now take that kind of promise up a notch — an infinite number of notches — to a promise made by God.

So when God wanted to give the heirs of his promise
an even clearer demonstration of the immutability of his purpose,
he intervened with an oath,
so that by two immutable things,
in which it was impossible for God to lie,
we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged
to hold fast to the hope that lies before us.
This we have as an anchor of the soul,
sure and firm, which reaches into the interior behind the veil,
where Jesus has entered on our behalf as forerunner…

Hebrews 6:17-18

Paul’s language might seem a little dense to us but basically he is saying that God has promised to be with us forever and to bring us to the fullness of eternal life. Thinking about that, the image of Dr. Good pops up in my memory.

In your own prayer, you might recall a circumstance that gave you the same kind of promised confidence and peace… perhaps a parent who consoled your young doubts, or a friend who promised support in a difficulty. Imagine that feeling multiplied infinitely by the loving promise of God to sustain us with Eternal Life.

Poetry: Anchored to the Infinite – Edwin Markham was popular American literary figure during the first half of the 20th century whose works espoused progressive social and spiritual beliefs.

The builder who first bridged Niagara’s gorge,
Before he swung his cable, shore to shore,
Sent out across the gulf his venturing kite
Bearing a slender cord for unseen hands
To grasp upon the further cliff and draw
A greater cord, and then a greater yet;
Till at the last across the chasm swung
The cable then the mighty bridge in air!
So we may send our little timid thought
Across the void, out to God’s reaching hands—
Send out our love and faith to thread the deep—
Thought after thought until the little cord
Has greatened to a chain no chance can break,
And we are anchored to the Infinite!

Music: Blessed Assurance – written by Fanny Crosby (1820 – 1915) an American mission worker, poet, lyricist, and composer. She was a prolific hymnist, writing more than 8,000 hymns and gospel songs, with more than 100 million copies printed. She is also known for her teaching and her rescue mission work. By the end of the 19th century, she was a household name. Crosby was known as the “Queen of Gospel Song Writers” and as the “Mother of modern congregational singing in America”, with most American hymnals containing her work.

Heart-Softening

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Faith, Forgiveness, Gospel, spiritualityLeave a comment

Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
January 12, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/011223.cfm

psalm 95 copy

Today, in Mercy, our first reading quotes at length from Psalm 95, and the message is reprised in the Responsorial Psalm.

Harden not your hearts.

We all know what it feels like to harden our hearts. We do it out of anger, fear, exhaustion, frustration and so many other reasons. We feel like the only way to protect ourselves and our space is to build a wall! Put up those bricks made out of our stony faces, curt words, numbing silence, distancing indifference – our hardened hearts.

Today’s reading tells us that this is never God’s way.

The way to freedom, peace, self-respect, joy and fullness of life is always found in relationship – as God is in relationship with all Creation.

Jesus demonstrates that relationship in today’s Gospel by connecting with the leper. This leper has been walled off from society by illness and disfigurement. Most people’s hearts are hardened against him, but Jesus is “moved by pity” at the leper’s isolation.

The leper, too, has built a bridge by reaching through his own hardened heart in faith and trust. Surely all the years of mistreatment had made him wary of trust, had immobilized him in self-protection. But he allows himself a courageous plea to Jesus, and he is heard.

Jesus Cures a Leper – Rembrandt

It is no easy challenge to soften a hardened heart. Some of our walls are very high, some of our bricks very heavy. But, one by one, we can choose opportunities for forgiveness, kindness, understanding, patience, encouragement, listening and companionship – even, and especially, toward those estranged in any way from us or from themselves. And we can do this even toward ourselves when we have become hardened to our own beauty and goodness.

To begin might take only a smile, a prayer, a phone call, a small kindness, an invitation, a moment of ordinary conversation…. just these might start to crumble a wall, to soften a heart.

Let’s ask God’s grace today to do this heart-softening wherever we might need it. Let’s ask this grace for others in need as well.

Poetry: The Altar by George Herbert – Herbert wrote this poem in the shape of an altar. He describes the spiritual process of allowing his “hard heart” to be built into an altar for God’s praise.

A broken ALTAR, Lord, thy servant rears,

 Made of a heart and cemented with tears:

  Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;

No workman’s tool hath touch’d the same.

                   A HEART alone

                   Is such a stone,

                  As nothing but

                  Thy pow’r doth cut.

                  Wherefore each part

                  Of my hard heart

                  Meets in this frame,

                  To praise thy name:

       That if I chance to hold my peace,

 These stones to praise thee may not cease.

   Oh, let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,

     And sanctify this ALTAR to be thine.

Music: Soften My Heart, Lord (and adding a second song, just because I think you’ll like it.)

The Mystery of Suffering

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Faith, spiritualityLeave a comment

Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
January 10, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/011023.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we read from the epistle to the Hebrews and the Gospel of Mark. We will be doing this for the next month or so.

heb2_10 sufferingjpg

Hebrews is unique in that it was written rather specifically for Jews who had become Christians. They were people who were steeped in the spirituality and expectations of the Old Testament. Many had been waiting for a militant Messiah who would deliver them from earthly suffering by a display of power and might.

During the first century of Christianity, as the nascent Church experienced persecution, that hope for delivery re-emerged. Although they had accepted a Resurrected Christ, the community’s own present suffering fixated them on the Passion and Death of Jesus. They questioned how that anguished man could really be the One foretold in their Hebrew Scriptures, and how he could transform their lives.

Can’t we empathize with those early Judea-Christians? The mystery of suffering and death still haunts us. Don’t we sometimes question why Jesus had to die like that – why we have to die, why the people we love have to die? Don’t we feel at least some resistance to this overwhelming mystery?

The author of Hebrews tries to address those doubts by showing that the majesty of Christ resides not just in his divine nature, but in his loving willingness to share our human nature. By doing so, Jesus demonstrated in his flesh the path we must take to holiness. He leads the way through our doubts if we put our faith in him.

… we do see Jesus “crowned with glory and honor”
because he suffered death,
he who “for a little while” was made “lower than the angels,”
that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone…

For it was fitting that he,
for whom and through whom all things exist,
in bringing many children to glory,
should make the leader to their salvation perfect through suffering.

Hebrews 2:9-10

This is the core mystery of our faith: that God brings us to eternal life not by a path outside our human experience. Rather, Jesus shows us how to pattern our lives on the profound sacrificial love which is the Lavish Mercy of God. The path to eternal life is not around our human frailties and challenges, but through them. Jesus leads the way by his Life, Death and Resurrection.

Mark gives us just one Gospel example of that love today in the healing of the man with the unclean spirit. That spirit was one of resistance to the Word of God, screaming out as Jesus began to preach a Gospel of love, faith, and forgiveness.

Two Men Possessed with Devils – James Tissot (1836-1902)

The man with an unclean spirit cried out,
“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are–the Holy One of God!” 

Matthew 1:23-24

As we pray these scriptures today, let us put before God’s healing touch any resistance in our hearts to Jesus’s call to be merciful love in the world.

Poetry: Suffering – Jessica Powers

All that day long I spent the hours with suffering.
I woke to find her sitting by my bed.
She stalked my footsteps while time slowed to timeless,
Tortured my sight, came close in what was said.

She asked me no more than that, beneath unwelcome,
I might be mindful of her grant of grace.
I still can smile, amused, when I remember
How I surprised her when I kissed her face.

Music:  Crown Him with Many Crowns, an 1851 hymn with lyrics written by Matthew Bridges and Godfrey Turing and sung to the tune ‘Diademata‘ by Sir George Job Elvey.

This majestic hymn reflects how mid-19th century theology attempted to embrace the Redemptive mystery. Still, many of its suggestions, though cast in an earlier idiom, are well worth reflection.

Cherish Your Baptism

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, spiritualityLeave a comment

Christmas Weekday
January 6, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/010623.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we may be used to celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany. But those who generate the Church calendar have reserved that celebration for this coming Sunday.

We are blessed instead with dynamic readings, triumphant in tone, calling us to celebrate our life in Christ:

Beloved:
Who indeed is the victor over the world
but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
….
I write these things to you so that you may know
that you have eternal life,
you who believe in the name of the Son of God.

1 John 5: 5;13

In a way, John calls us to a personal epiphany — the realization of the indescribable gift of grace we have received through Baptism. He enjoins us to live audaciously within the power of that realization.

In our short but powerful Gospel, we see Jesus burst into that audacious living:

The Baptism Of Jesus is a painting by Jeff Haynie
For purchase, see:
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-baptism-of-jesus-jeff-haynie.html

It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee
and was baptized in the Jordan by John.
On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open
and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him.
And a voice came from the heavens,
“You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

Matthew 1:9-11

In the power of Jesus
rising through the Baptismal waters,
may we too live each new day
in cascade of faith, hope and love.

Poetry: Variation on a Theme by Rilke from Breathing the Water by Denise Levertov


A certain day became a presence to me;
there it was, confronting me--a sky, air, light:
a being. And before it started to descend
from the height of noon, it leaned over
and struck my shoulder as if with
the flat of a sword, granting me
honor and a task, The day's blow
rang out, metallic--or it was I, a bell awakened,
and what I heard was my whole self
saying and singing what it knew: I can.

Music: Cherish by Aeoliah

An Eternal Moment

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, spirituality6 Comments

The Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas
New Year’s Eve – 2022

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/123122.cfm

new sunset

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we stand on the far western shore of the Year of Our Lord, 2022.

It is well near evening.  Our memories are silhouetted against the deep purple sky as they sail beyond the shimmering horizon.  In 2022, we have lived, laughed, lost and loved in ways never to be repeated, yet never to be forgotten.  The great turning of time goes relentlessly on, but we have written our story in its indelible trail. It’s an awesome realization.

John, when writing the first reading, seems to have felt some of tonight’s emotions:

Children, it is the last hour; 
and just as you heard that the evil one is among us,

But you have the anointing that comes from the Holy One,
and you all have knowledge. 

Slightly later on in the epistle, John finishes the thought:

Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you.
If what you heard from the beginning remains in you,
then you will remain in the Son and in the Father.
And this is the promise that he made us: eternal life.

With fireworks and reveling, popular culture will invite us to the brash celebration of our presence within this point in history.  But, at the altar of our hearts, we recognize this long evening of reminiscence as a time of quiet thanksgiving and petition.  It is a time of awe and trust. It is an evening when we balance “time” against the promise of “eternity”.

IMG_1991

Like flint struck against the almighty soul of God, we have been given life.  We are God’s fire at this moment in time’s long unwinding.  Tonight, we turn our spirits to those beside us, behind us, before us and we pray in thanksgiving and hope for them.

IMG_1994

Together, we sink into the Dark Infinity of our Creator who sustains all life beyond our worries, fears and limitations.  With innumerable universes, God balances us in the Palm of Mercy.  As the midnight shadows fall, God closes the fingertips of grace and protection over us.

In the split moment between two years, we too become infinite – fire in God’s darkness, spark redeemed beyond time.

IMG_1989

In 2023, we will forget this transcendent moment.  The bright light of daily living will blind us to that piece of divinity shining in our souls.  But tonight, let us remember.  As midnight passes by, may our spirits kneel within us to the Awesome Mystery who holds us, as one, eternally within Itself.

A truly blessed New Year to you and your beloveds, my friends.

Music: Be Still My Soul – Kari Jobe

A Fierce Devotion

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Faith, Jesus, Mary, spiritualityLeave a comment

Feast of The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
December 30, 2022

Today’s Readings

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/123022.cfm

Holy-Family

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our prayer is turned to the Holy Family, that unique configuration of love which nurtured the developing life of Jesus. Can you imagine how tenderly the Creator shaped this Triad, this nesting place of love for God’s own Word? Our passage from Sirach gives us an idea of the honor given to the concept of “family” down through the ages leading to Christ:

God sets a father in honor over his children;
a mother’s authority he confirms over her sons.
Whoever honors his father atones for sins,
and preserves himself from them.
When he prays, he is heard;
he stores up riches who reveres his mother.
Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children,
and, when he prays, is heard.
Whoever reveres his father will live a long life;
he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother.

Sirach 3: 2-6

The Flight into Egypt – Rembrandt

Matthew’s Gospel today describes a fierce devotion in Joseph and Mary to protect the precious life of Jesus. It is a natural instinct, fed by God, and made holy by its selflessness. We do not have to look far to see such devotion today … we see it wherever refugees struggle to foster their own and their beloveds’ lives. Today’s feast calls us to consider our efforts, by prayer or activism, to create a world where all may be reverenced and may live in safety.

We also look to the Holy Family so that we might be strengthened in the virtues that will help us build our own families: sacrificial love, reverence, courage, unfailing support, committed presence, shared faith, gentle honesty, unconditional acceptance.

“Family” is the primordial place where we learn who we are. The lessons it teaches us about ourselves – for better or worse — remain with us forever. 

Not everyone is blessed by their family. Family can ground us in confidence or undermine us with self-doubt. It can free us from fear or cripple us with reservation. It can release either possibility or perpetual hesitation within us.

Some families are so dysfunctional that we spend the rest of our lives trying to recover from them. But some, like the Holy Family, allow God’s dream to be nurtured in us and to spread to new families, both of blood and spirit.

The challenge today is to thank God for whatever type of family bore us. Lessons can be learned from both lights and shadows. Let us spend time this morning looking  at our own families with love, gratitude, forgiveness, understanding. Where there are wounds to be healed, let us face them. Where there are belated thanks to be offered, let us give them. Where there are negligence and oversights to confess, let us use them as bridges to a new devotion.

For some, it may seem too late to heal or bless our family. Time may have swallowed some of our possibilities. But it is never too late to deepen relationships through prayer, both for and to our ancestors.

May this feast strengthen us for the families who need us today.

Music: God Bless My Family ~ Anne Hampton Calloway (Lyrics below)

GOD BLESS MY FAMILY
Words and music – By Ann Hampton Callaway

It’s Christmas time
Outside the snow is falling
Like a million stars
Like a million dreams
All dressed up in white
I’m writing Christmas cards
A joy that’s tinged with sadness
As I think of friends
Some are here and some are gone
But our love goes on and on
Like the snow tonight

CHORUS
And oh, what a familyMy life has given me
From the corners of the earth
To the reaches of the sky
We touch eternally
And though my heart aches ev’ry day
This Christmas I will find a way
To let each face I’ve ever loved
Shine out in me
God bless my family

As years go by
The carols we sang as children
Gather memories
What was just a song
Now feels like a pray’r
Welcoming us home
To fathers, mothers
Sisters, brothers ev’rywhere
Some we’ve lost and some we’ve found
As love circles us around
In the songs we share

CHORUS

So fly, angels of my heart
We’ll never be apart
Tonight I say a pray’r
For loved ones ev’rywhere

CHORUS/CODA

You’re a part of my family
That life has given me
From the corners of the earth
To the reaches of the sky
We touch eternally
And though my heart aches ev’ryday
This Christmas I will find a way
To let each face I’ve ever loved
Shine out in me
God bless my family
You’ll always live in me
God bless my family

O Earliest Witness!

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Cross, Discipleship, spirituality2 Comments

Feast of Saint Stephen, first martyr
December 26, 2022

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122622.cfm

The Demidoff Altarpiece: Saint Stephen
Representation of St. Stephen from The Demidoff Altarpiece by Carlo Crivelli, an Italian Renaissance painter of the late fifteenth century. This many-panelled altarpiece or polyptic painted by Crivelli in 1476, sat on the high altar of the church of San Domenico in Ascoli Piceno, east central Italy. It is now in the National Gallery in London, England.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we celebrate the Feast of St. Stephen, first martyr for the Christian faith. He must have been a beautiful soul.

Stephen, filled with grace and power,
was working great wonders and signs among the people.
Certain members of the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen,
Cyrenians, and Alexandrians,
and people from Cilicia and Asia,
came forward and debated with Stephen,
but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke.

Acts of the Apostles 6: 8-10

The commemoration and readings are a drastic turn from singing angels and worshiping shepherds.The Liturgy moves quickly from welcoming a cooing baby to weeping at the death of innocence.

They threw him out of the city, and began to stone him.
The witnesses laid down their cloaks
at the feet of a young man named Saul.
As they were stoning Stephen, he called out
“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

Acts 7: 54-59

Why does the Church make such a drastic turn in the tone of worship? One thought might be to keep us practical and focused on what life in Christ truly means, even as we’re all still wrapped in angels and alleluias.

Stephen, like Jesus, “was filled with grace and power, … working great wonders and signs among the people.” He, as Jesus would, met vicious resistance to his message of love and reconciliation. He, as Jesus would, died a martyr’s death while forgiving his enemies.

The Church turns us to the stark truth for anyone who lets Christ truly be born in their hearts. WE will suffer as Jesus did – as Stephen did. The grace and power of Christ in our life will be met with resistance, or at least indifference.

We may not shed blood but, in Christ, we will die to self. When we act for justice for the poor and mercy for the suffering, we will be politically frustrated and persecuted. When we forgive rather than hate, we will be mocked. Powerful people, like the yet unconverted Saul in today’s second reading, may catalyze our suffering by their determined hard-heartedness.

Our Gospel confirms the painful truth as Jesus says:

You will be hated by all because of my name,
but whoever endures to the end will be saved.

Matthew 10:22

Tomorrow, the liturgy picks up the poetic readings from John’s letters. These are delights to the soul. 

But for today, it is a hard look, with Stephen, at what Christmas ultimately invites us to.

Poetry: O Captain of the Martyr Host – This is an English adaptation of a medieval hymn O qui tuo, dux martyrum, written by Jean Baptiste de Santeüil. It appeared in the Cluniac Breviary, 1686.

O Captain of the Martyr Host!
O peerless in renown! 

Not from the fading flowers of earth 
Weave we for thee a crown.
The stones that smote thee, in thy blood 
Made beauteous and divine, 
All in a halo heavenly bright 
About thy temples shine. 
The scars upon thy sacred brow 
Throw beams of glory round; 
The splendours of thy bruised face 
The very sun confound. 
Oh, earliest Victim sacrificed 
To thy dear Victim Lord! 
Oh, earliest witness to the Faith 
Of thy Incarnate God! 
Thou to the heavenly Canaan first 
Through the Red Sea didst go, 
And to the Martyrs' countless host, 
Their path of glory show. 
Erewhile a servant of the poor, 
Now at the Lamb's high Feast, 
In blood-empurpled robe array'd, 
A welcome nuptial guest! 
To Jesus, born of Virgin bright, 
Praise with the Father be; 
Praise to the Spirit Paraclete, 
Through all eternity.

Music: Gabriel’s Oboe from the movie “The Mission”, played by Henrik Chaim Goldschmidt,  principal oboist of The Royal Danish Orchestra in Copenhagen, Denmark.