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Gospel Reading for December 26, 2024 – Matthew 10: 17-22
A GREAT PRIVILEGE
Jesus said to his disciples: “Beware of men, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans. 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. Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved.”
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Just a day after we celebrated the birthday of Jesus, we are celebrating the feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr. Some of us would say, how morbid to celebrate a death after just having celebrated a birth. But then, we have to remember that when we celebrated the birth of Jesus, although a truly happy occasion, it is the purpose of his birth that we really celebrate. He was born to save us from all evil and eternal damnation. God chooses people among us who will continue his Son’s work of salvation and one of them was St. Stephen. He was stoned to death because of his defense of Christianity before the Sanhedrin, and yet, as he was dying, he found it in his heart to forgive his attackers. He endured to the end so he is surely saved. Did the death of St. Stephen scare the other early Christians? No. On the contrary, there were so many more after him. Some named, some unnamed, but they all died for the Faith.
Today, we are so blessed to be able to openly celebrate the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and all other sacraments. We are free to proclaim our Faith without having to be punished or persecuted. We don’t have to hide in catacombs to avoid being arrested. We have SO MANY CHURCHES especially here in the Philippines. And yet, there are those of us who are lazy to go to Church every Sunday, especially when it is raining. We continue to watch masses online as if we are still in times of pandemic. If we only realize how great a blessing it is to be a Christian at present and not during the times of the first Christians, perhaps we will not see Sunday worship as an obligation imposed on us, but rather, A GREAT PRIVILEGE to partake of the sacred meal with our brethren in the Faith.
We are grateful to all those chosen by God to continue Jesus’ work of salvation, especially those who had to die gruesome deaths in order that our faith may live!
