Sermon 317
SERMO 317
On Stephen the Martyr
The relics of Stephen were transferred to Africa and were everywhere made famous due to God's blessings. The commandment of loving one's enemies has a great reward. An example is given from the Heavenly Father.
Martyr Stephen, blessed and the first after the Apostles, ordained as a deacon by the Apostles, crowned before the Apostles; he enlightened those lands with his suffering, visited these lands in his death. But he would not visit in death unless he also lived in death. A small amount of dust gathered so many people: the ashes lie hidden, but the benefits are evident. Consider, beloved, what God reserves for us in the land of the living, who grants such great things from the dust of the dead. The flesh of Saint Stephen is spread far and wide: but the merit of his faith is praised. Thus, let us expect to attain temporal benefits, so that by imitating him we may be worthy to receive the eternal ones. What the blessed Martyr set before us to be imitated in his passion, that we should heed, believe, and fulfill, is truly to celebrate the solemnity of the Martyr. Our Lord, among the great and salutary, divine and highest precepts which he gave to his disciples, this seems grievous to men, that he commanded them to love their enemies. A grievous precept, but a great reward. Finally, when he admonished this, see what he said: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute you. You have heard the work, await the reward; and see what he adds: So that you may be, he says, children of your Father who is in heaven, who makes his sun rise on the good and on the bad, and rains upon the just and the unjust. This we see, this we cannot deny. Is it said to the clouds: Rain on the fields of my worshipers, and turn away from the fields of my blasphemers? Is it said to the sun: Let those who worship me see you, and not those who curse me? Benefits from heaven, benefits from earth: springs gush forth, fields grow fertile, trees are laden with fruits. The good have these, and the bad have them; the grateful have them, and the ungrateful have them. He who grants so much to the good and the bad, do we think he reserves nothing for the good? He gives this to the good and the bad, what he also gave to the stoners of Stephen: but he reserves for the good what he gave to Stephen.
Another example in Christ.
Therefore, brothers, let us learn to love our enemies by the example of this Martyr. An example is set forth by God the Father, who makes His sun rise over the good and the evil. The Son of God also said this after taking on His flesh, through the mouth of His flesh, which He took on by loving His enemies. For He who came into the world as a lover of His enemies found absolutely all of them as His enemies; He found no one as a friend. For His enemies He shed His blood; but with His blood, He converted His enemies. He wiped away the sins of His enemies with His own blood: by wiping away sins, He made friends out of enemies. Among these friends was also Stephen: indeed, he is and will be. However, the Lord Himself first showed on the cross what He advised. For from all sides the Jews were raging, angry, mocking, insulting, crucifying, He said: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. For blindness crucified me. Blindness was crucifying; and crucified, He was making ointment for them from His own blood.
An example is also in Stephen. The gospel is both a tool and a testament.
But men lazy in following commands, eager for rewards, who do not love their enemies but desire to avenge themselves on them, do not heed the Lord, who, if He wished to avenge Himself on His enemies, there would be no one left to praise Him; when they hear this passage of the Gospel, where the Lord on the cross said: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing; they say to themselves, He could do this, as the Son of God, as the only one of the Father. For the flesh was hanging, but God was hidden within. But what are we, that we should do such things? Did He deceive who commanded? By no means: He did not deceive. If you think it very much to imitate your Lord, look to Stephen your fellow servant. The Lord Christ, the only Son of God: was this Stephen? The Lord Christ, born of an incorruptible virgin: was this Stephen? The Lord Christ came, not in the flesh of sin, but in the likeness of the flesh of sin: was this Stephen? He was born just as you; he was born from where you were; he was reborn from the same one from whom you were; he was redeemed by the same price by which you were; he is worth as much as you are worth. One instrument was made for us. The Gospel is the instrument, where we were all bought: where you are, there he is. Because we are servants, it is an instrument; because we are sons, it is a testament. Look at him, look at your fellow servant.
A lamp kindled for feeble eyes in the examples of the saints. The love of enemies is a gift of God.
Is it too much for you, because you have weak eyes, to look at the sun? Look at the lamp. For the Lord said to his disciples: No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel, but on a lampstand, so that it may give light to all who are in the house. The house is the world: the lampstand is the cross of Christ: the lamp shining on the lampstand is Christ hanging on the cross. On the same lampstand shone also he who first kept the garments of those who were stoning, from Saul to Paul, from wolf to lamb, both small and great; a snatcher of lambs, and a shepherd of lambs: he shone on the same lampstand when he said: But far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world. So let your light shine, he says, before men. Behold, the light of Stephen shines, this lamp shines: let us heed it. Let no one say, It is too much for me: he was a man, you are a man. But he did not receive it from himself. Did he receive it and close it off to you? The fountain is common: drink from where he drank. By the grace of God he received: the giver abounds; and you ask, and receive.
The rebuke of a lover is sometimes harsh. Stephen’s love toward his killers.
The Lord loves and harshly rebukes the Jews, but out of love: Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. When He was saying these things, who would not have said that He hated them? He went to the cross and said: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. Likewise, Stephen in his speech first rebukes: Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. These are the words of holy Stephen when he was addressing the Jews: Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears; you always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? By saying this, it seems as if he hates them, as if he rages. The tongue cries out, the heart loves. We heard the tongue crying out, let us test the loving disposition. For when they rushed to the stones, hard against the hard, they threw their equals at him. He was stoned with stones, the one who was dying for the Rock; with the Apostle saying: And the Rock was Christ. And with such firmness in teaching, see what patience he had in death. For they were shaking his body with the blows of the stones, and he prayed for his enemies: the outward man was being struck, and the inward man was supplicating. But the Lord who had girded him, who had tested him, who had placed a mark not in his hand but on his forehead, was watching his soldier from above, intending to aid him in his struggle, to crown him triumphant. Finally, He showed Himself to him. Behold, he said, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. He alone saw because He appeared to him alone. And what did he say for himself? Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Praying for himself, he stood; for them, he knelt: erect for himself, bowed for them; exalted for himself, humble for them: he knelt and said: Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And having said this, he fell asleep. O sleep of peace! He who slept among the stones of his enemies, how will he stand watch over his ashes? He slept secure, quiet in peace; because he commended his spirit to the Lord.
Stephen loved his enemies.
Therefore, Stephen loved his enemies. For he, who stood praying for himself, knelt for them. Indeed, he fulfilled what was written. A true imitator of the Lord's suffering and a perfect follower of Christ, who completed in his own passion what he had heard from the teacher. For the Lord, while hanging on the cross, said: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing; and blessed Stephen, when he was almost overwhelmed by stones, said thus: Lord Jesus, do not hold this sin against them. O apostolic man, already a teacher from being a disciple. For it was fitting that the first martyr should follow Christ's teaching of the Master. He prays for the impious, he prays for the blasphemers, for those who stone him. Because it was difficult to be heard for such people, weakness was added, so that love might be strengthened. He knelt, he obtained. Do you think he was not heard, when he said: Lord, do not hold this sin against them? He was heard. For many of them believed. But I do not send you far. That Saul, who was stoning with the hands of all, who was keeping the clothes of those stoning, Stephen was heard for him. Afterwards, he raged; taking letters he raged against Christians; he thirsted for blood, he breathed slaughter. And the Lord, who had heard Stephen for him, said: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? The one whom you killed prayed for you. And I choose you, that you may confess me and die for me.
Let us therefore celebrate the birth of Saint Stephen and honor him with due veneration. We have celebrated the birth of the Lord; let us also celebrate the servant. We have attended the nativity of the Savior; let us attend also the birth of the martyr. The incorrupt virgin Mary gave birth to our Lord, and the holy mother Church has elevated glorious Stephen to the palm of martyrdom.