Our Father Among the Saints Athanasius the Great (373)
Acts 6:8-7:5, 47-60; John 4:46-54
Read Acts 6:8-7:5, 47-60
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
Yesterday, we heard how Stephen, with six others, were chosen as the first deacons. Their service was to take care of the daily distribution in the early Christian community where everything was shared. It is noted today that Stephen not only excelled in this administrative duty but also in that great signs and wonders were done by the Lord through him as he was filled with grace and power. As he was a man full of faith, relying on the Holy Spirit to give him the words to speak, he was successful at the debate between him and the members of the local synagogue of Freedmen in Jerusalem. Like our Lord, Stephen eventually had false witnesses brought against him. While we do not hear his entire speech today (he goes through salvation history revealing that Jesus is the Messiah), we do hear the climax of that speech when he says: “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit.” He is, of course, speaking to the Jews who have not become Christians. They were infuriated at hearing the truth – it did not fit their narrative. Stephen did not create his own narrative to appease his opponents, he simply spoke the truth. And the same ought to be for us – simply speaking the truth of Jesus Christ to others, not to change it to make it fit for others. It might bring persecution, even death (martyrdom). It happened for Stephen (we call him the Protomartyr, literally first-martyr), it happened for the monastics, religious and clergy of our Church in Ukraine in the 1940s (the New Blesseds), it recently happened to the New Martyrs of the Coptic Orthodox Church a few years ago—it can happen to us. Let us resolve to bring anew to the world the Good News of Christ’s Resurrection – without compromise.