My brothers and sisters, today we witness the beautiful and tragic climax of St. Stephen’s earthly life, paired with a profound claim by Jes...
My brothers and sisters, today we witness the beautiful and tragic climax of St. Stephen’s earthly life, paired with a profound claim by Jesus. To draw the spiritual fruit from these texts, we will look at three words: Resistance, Reliance, and Radiance.
Our first word is Resistance. In the first reading, Stephen looks at the religious leaders and says something very bold: "You stiff-necked people... you always oppose the Holy Spirit." They had the scriptures, they had the law, but their hearts were hardened. They resisted anything that challenged their control or their comfort. In the Gospel, the crowd shows a softer, but similar resistance. They demand, "What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?" They are resisting Jesus's invitation to faith by moving the goalposts, asking for more proof. We do this too. We resist God's will by demanding signs, saying, "Lord, if you just fix this one problem, then I will trust you completely."
The antidote to resistance is our second word: Reliance. Jesus tries to shift the crowd's reliance from the past to the present. They bring up Moses and the manna in the desert. Jesus corrects them: it wasn't Moses who gave the bread, it was God, and the true bread of God is standing right in front of them. Jesus declares, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger." He is asking for total reliance. He is telling us that the deep ache in our hearts—the desire to be loved, to be safe, to have purpose—cannot be satisfied by money, relationships, or success. It can only be satisfied by a daily, total reliance on Jesus.
When we stop resisting and start relying on Him, we achieve our third word: Radiance. Look at Stephen as he is being stoned to death. He doesn't curse his murderers. He looks up to heaven, sees the glory of God, and prays, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." That is the radiance of a soul completely sustained by the Bread of Life. Even as stones are crushing his physical body, his spirit is so full of Christ that only love and forgiveness spill out.
Today, let us ask the Lord to soften our stiff necks. Let us stop demanding signs and simply rely on the Bread of Life, so that even in our trials, our lives may radiate the forgiving love of Jesus Christ. Amen.
No comments