Word to the Wise
Thursday, December 26, 2019 - Dec. 26 - Feast of St. Stephen, first martyr
[Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59 and Matt 10:17-22]"When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you." [Matthew]
The pleasant after-effects of the Christmas celebration may linger awhile, but today they are interrupted abruptly by a blunt and sober message: "If you proclaim the birth of Christ (and his life, death and resurrection) you may pay dearly for it, even with your own life! Even innocent bystanders may suffer, as the children Herod ordered destroyed in an effort to destroy Jesus.
In some circumstances, this proclamation will not be in the form of words. Our presence may be all that we can do. The story of a little girl comes to mind. She is not waiting in the usual place at the end of a school day. Her mom gets very worried and goes looking and finds her a short distance away with another little girl who is holding a broken doll and crying. Mom rushes up and says, "Where have you been? I've been looking for you!" Her daughter replies, "I've been here with my friend. Her dolly is broken!" Mom says, "That's very sad, but you can't fix her dollly, can you?" Daughter responds, "No, Mama, but I can help her cry!"
In our own or others' crises, whether of faith or other disasters, words may be scarce, but our presence in faith or others' presence to us may be the work of "the Spirit of the Father speaking through you (him, her, them). St. Stephen's words were powerful, but it is his witness that we celebrate. AMEN