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ANGELUS TODAY
The Holy Father delivered an Angelus homily today on the occasion of the Feast of St. Stephen.
'Martyrdom of St. Stephen', A. Caracci, 1610, Oil on canvas, 64x150 cm. National Gallery, London.
Saul, later the Apostle Paul, is shown at left.
In this Christmas season, we rejoice that "the grace of God has appeared!" (Tit 2:11); his mercy and love have been revealed in the face of the Christ-child born in Bethlehem!
Today’s feast of Saint Stephen reminds us that we are also called to follow Jesus to the Cross: though suffering is a part of life, a God who personally enters history has the power to save us through it.
With our eyes fixed on heaven, let us therefore "endure to the end", so that we might gaze upon his face for all eternity (cf. Mt 10:22). God bless you all!
Here is a translation of the Holy Father's words today:
Dear brothers and sisters!
The feast today of St. Stephen, the first martyr of the Church, takes place in the spiritual light of Christ's Nativity.
Stephen, a young man 'full of grace and the Holy Spirit', as he is described in the Acts of the Apostles (6,5), was ordained a deacon in the first Community at Jerusalem, and because of his ardent and courageous preaching, he was arrested and stoned to death.
There is a detail, in the account of his martyrdom, which deserves to be highlighted in this Pauline Year, and that is the remark that "the witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul" (Acts 7,58).
St. Paul appears [in the NewTtestament] for the first time, under his Jewish name Saul, as a zealous persecutor of the Church (cfr Phil 3,6), which at the time he considered a duty and cause for pride.
In hindsight, one might say that the testimony of Stephen was decisive for his conversion. Let us see how.
Shortly after Stephen's martyrdom, Saul, still impelled by his zeal against Christians, went to Damascus to arrest those whom he would find there. It was while approaching the city that 'lightning struck' - that singular experience in which the Risen Jesus appeared to him, spoke to him and changed his life (Acts 9,1-9).
When Saul, who had fallen to the ground, heard his name called by a mysterious voice, he asked, "Who are you, Lord?", and he heard the response, "I am Jesus whom you persecuted" (Acts 9,5).
Saul had persecuted the Church and had collaborated at the stoning of Stephen. He saw him die under the hail of stones, and above all, he saw how Stephen died: like Christ in everything, that is, praying, and forgiving his killers (cfr Acts 7,59-60).
On the road to Damascus, Saul came to understand that in persecuting the Church, he had been persecuting Jesus who had died and was truly resurrected - Jesus living in his Church, living in Stephen too, who had seen him die, but who now certainly was with his resurrected Lord.
We can almost say that in the voice of Christ, Saul heard that of Stephen, and that by the intercession of the latter, divine grace had touched his heart.
And that is how Paul's life changed radically. From that time on, Jesus became his 'righteousness, sanctification, and redemption' (cfr 1 Cor 1,30), his everything. And one day, he too would follow in Stephen's footsteps, to shed his own blood, in witness to the Gospel, here in Rome.
Dear brothers and sisters, in St. Stephen, we see the realization of the first fruits of salvation that the Nativity of Christ brought to mankind: the victory of life over death, of love over hate, of the light of truth over the shadows of deceit.
Let us praise God and may this victory allow Christians even today not to answer evil with evil, but with the power of truth and love.
May the Virgin Mary, Queen of Martyrs, obtain that all believers may courageously follow the same path.
After the Angelus prayers, he had these special messages on the international situation:
In the Christmas atmosphere, one feels concern more strongly for those who are in situations of suffering and grave difficulties.
My thoughts go, among others, to the two Italian consecrated sisters, Maria Teresa Oliviero and Caterina Giraudo, of the contemplative missionary order of Fr. de Foucauld, who were kidnapped more than a month a and a half ago, along with some of their local co-workers, from the village of El Waq in northern Kenya.
I would like them to feel the solidarity of the Pope and the whole Church behind them. May the Lord, who in being born as man came to make us a gift of his love, touch the hearts of their abductors, and grant that our sisters may be released soon so they may continue with their disinterested service to their poorer brothers.
For this, dear brothers and sisters, I invite everyone to pray, without forgetting the numerous other persons held captive in other parts of the world, about whom we are not always able to get clear information. I think of the captives for political or other reasons in Latin America, in the Middle East and in Africa.
May our fraternal prayers be of intimate spiritual assistance to all of them.
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No OR today.
The next issue will be that for Dec. 27-28,
to be posted online on Saturday afternoon.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 27/12/2008 05:45] |