Sermon 315

SERMO 315

ON THE SOLEMNITY OF STEPHEN THE MARTYR

The deeds of Stephen are contained in the canonical book. The book of the Acts of the Apostles is accustomed to be read from on the Lord's Day of Pascha.

The most blessed Stephen was appointed as a deacon along with six others, making him the seventh, and how he attained the heavenly crown, you heard when the very passage was read aloud. This first merit of the first Martyr has been commended to your Charity, because while we rarely find the Acts of other martyrs, which we can recite on their feast days, his passion is in the canonical book. The Acts of the Apostles is a book within the Canon of Scriptures. The very book begins to be read on Easter Sunday, according to the custom of the Church. Therefore, in this book, titled "The Acts of the Apostles," you heard how seven deacons, including Saint Stephen, were chosen and ordained by the Apostles. The Apostles are first, the deacons follow. And the first martyr is among the deacons rather than among the Apostles: the first victim is from the lambs rather than from the rams.

The passion of Stephen is similar to the passion of Christ. False witnesses against both. Great power of truth.

But how much similarity of suffering did he have with his Lord and Savior! False witnesses against him, just as against Him: and concerning the same matter. For you know and recall what the false witnesses said against the Lord Christ: We heard him say, I will destroy this temple, and in three days I will build another new one. But the Lord had not said this: yet the falsehood was intended to be close to the truth. How were they false witnesses? They heard him say: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. But the Evangelist says: He was speaking of the temple of his body. The false witnesses, instead of saying "Destroy", said "I will destroy". They changed just slightly in the syllables: but the false witnesses were that much worse, the closer they wanted to approach the truth through their calumny. And what was alleged against him? We heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this temple, and will change the customs of the Law. They spoke a false testimony, and prophesied truly. Just as Caiaphas, their master, the high priest, giving counsel to the Jews that Christ should be killed, said this: It is better for one to die, than for the whole nation to perish. But the evangelist says: He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that it was necessary for Christ to die for the people. What is this, brothers? Great is the power of truth. Men hate the truth, and unknowingly prophesy the truth. They do not act, but are acted upon. Thus these false witnesses were like the false witnesses, but for whom Christ was killed.

Stephen, brought to the council, why does he not keep silent following the example of Christ? To preach upon the rooftop.

They brought him to the council to have a greater judgment. However, the friend of Christ, after stating his case, proclaimed the truth of his Lord. He was about to die: why should a pious tongue be silent before the impious? Why should he not die for the truth? In this alone he was unequal to his Lord, with a certain reason, as it pertains to the likeness of suffering. For He is God in the excellence of majesty. When the Lord was led to His passion, He preferred to remain silent when questioned: this one did not remain silent. Why did He prefer to be silent? Because it was foretold of Him: Like a sheep led to slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer, He did not open His mouth. But why did this one refuse to be silent? Because it was said by the Lord Himself: What I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. How did Saint Stephen preach on the housetops? Because he trampled the clay house of the flesh. For he who does not fear death tramples the flesh. He first explained to them from the beginning the law of God, from Abraham to Moses, to the giving of the law, to the entrance into the promised land; to recommend that the testimony they were bringing against him was false. Then he gave them a great resemblance of Moses to Christ. Moses was rejected by them, and he himself delivered them: rejected, he delivered. He did not return evil for evil: indeed he returned good for evil. So also the Lord Christ, rejected by the Jews, is He who will later deliver them.

The Jewish people were in some respects liberated through Christ.

But now he who dies is dead. The Jews whom you see will have the time of their liberation, through the very one whom they rejected; but they do not know. Now those who blaspheme perish: then there will be others, not these. When we say these things, we promise salvation not to others, but to ourselves. The nation will be liberated, not these. Listen carefully and understand the analogy. Does not God now liberate the Gentiles? All the Gentiles believe in Christ, and from sons of the devil they become sons of God. Yet those our ancestors, from whom we were born, who worshiped idols, perished with the idols.

Stephen, harsh in language towards the Jews, gentle in heart.

You have heard and seen the spectacles of the heart. There was sound in the ears, vision in the minds. You watched the great struggle of Saint Stephen, who was being stoned in his struggle. Who? He who long ago taught the law. What law did he teach? The one they received on stone tablets. Deservedly, having become like stone, they stoned the friend of Christ. With stiff neck (after he taught, he began to rebuke) and uncircumcised in heart and ears. Which of the prophets did your fathers not kill? He seemed to rage: a fierce tongue, a gentle heart. He cried out, and he loved. He raged, and he wanted them to be saved. Who would not believe he was angry, who would not believe he was inflamed with the torches of hatred, when he said: Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears? Meanwhile the Lord looked down from heaven and saw. Heaven was opened: he saw Jesus as though encouraging his athlete. And he did not keep silent about what he saw: Behold, I see, he said, heaven opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of majesty. Upon hearing this, as if it were blasphemy, they stopped their ears, and ran to the stones. It was said in the Psalm: Like a deaf adder, stopping its ears. They indeed exhibited what was predicted about them. He began to be stoned. Now consider him raging, recall his harsh words: Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. He seemed to be an enemy: as though, if it were possible, he wanted to kill them all. Let him say this, who does not see the heart. His heart was hidden: but his last words were heard, and his secrets were revealed when he was being stoned. Lord Jesus, he said, receive my spirit. To you I have spoken: for you I die. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Because you have helped, he has conquered whom you receive. Receive my spirit, from the hands of those who hate yours. This saintly Stephen said standing.

And after this, he knelt down and said: Lord, do not hold this sin against them. Where is it: Stiff-necked? Is this all that you shouted? Is this all that you raged? Outwardly you shouted, and inwardly you prayed.

Stephen stands praying for himself because he demands his due. A man is evil from himself, but good by the gift of God.

Lord Jesus, receive my spirit: thus standing. For he was demanding what was due when he said: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. He was demanding what was due, which was promised to martyrs: the due about which the Apostle says: For I am already being poured out, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day. He will award, He will award what is due. He who was formerly a debtor to punishments, afterwards began to hold God as the giver of rewards. How was the Apostle Paul a debtor to punishments? Because he was an enemy of the Church, because he was a persecutor. Hear him: I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. I am not worthy, he says worthy. Why are you not worthy? To suffer punishments, to enter hell, to be tormented for my merits, this I was worthy of: to be an apostle, I was not worthy. From where then is this to you, of which you were not worthy? He followed: But by the grace of God I am what I am. By my misfortune I was what I was: by the gift of God I am what I am. Therefore, in order to demand the due later, he first received the undue. What due afterwards? There remains for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day. He will award to me, it is due to me: the undue first. What? I am not worthy to be called an apostle: but by the grace of God I am what I am. So too Saint Stephen: Lord Jesus, standing in confidence because he had fought well, had battled well, had not yielded to the enemy, had trampled on fear, had despised the flesh, had overcome the world and the devil: thus he stood when he said: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

Saul, fiercer as a persecutor at the murder of Stephen. Saul, called Paul from Saul, modest, little. Stephen prays on bended knee for his enemies, because he seeks the undeserved.

When this man demanded his debt, the Apostle Paul was accumulating debt for himself. That man sought a good debt: the other added to an evil debt. For what do you think, brothers? When Stephen was being stoned, you heard, but perhaps did not notice, the false witnesses who were about to stone Stephen laid down their garments at the feet of a certain young man named Saul.

This is Saul, and afterwards Paul: Saul the persecutor, Paul the preacher. For Saul is named after Saül. Saül was the persecutor of King David. As Saül was towards David, so was Saul towards Stephen. But afterwards, when he was called from heaven; called, struck down, changed, when he began to preach the word of God as an apostle; he changed his name and called himself Paul. And why did he choose this? Because Paul means small, Paul means little. We usually speak like this: I will see you after a little while, that is after a short time. Where therefore Paul? I am the least of the apostles. Great, divine spectacles! He who was a persecutor in the death of Stephen, later became a preacher of the kingdom of heaven. How much he raged in that killing, would you like to hear? He kept the clothes of those who were stoning, so that by all their hands he would stone. Therefore, after the saintly Stephen standing demanded his due, saying: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit; attending to his enemies, who by stoning him were doing him evil as due, and added to that treasury, of which the apostle Paul says: But according to your hardness and impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God: he regarded them, and had mercy on them, and knelt for them. For himself he stood, for them he knelt. He separated the just from the sinners: he stood asking for the just, because he was demanding his reward; for the sinners he knelt, because he knew how difficult it would be to be heard on behalf of such wicked ones. Although just, although placed under the very crown, he did not presume, but knelt: not attending to what he himself was worthy of receiving by asking, but to what they were worthy of, from whom he wanted to remove horrendous punishments. Lord, he said, do not hold this sin against them.

Christ teaching the rule of piety from the chair of the cross. He has Stephen as a disciple and imitator.

What Stephen humble, Christ sublime: what he inclined to the earth, this Christ suspended on the wood. For recall that He Himself said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. He sat on the chair of the cross, and taught Stephen the rule of piety. O good Master, you pronounced well, you taught well. Behold your disciple prays for his enemies, he prays for his stoners. He showed how a humble one ought to imitate you sublime, creature the creator, victim the mediator, human God and human man: God, but yet man on the cross; Christ God, but man on the cross, when he said in a clear voice: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

He says to himself: He prayed for his enemies, because He is Christ, because He is God, because He is the Only One; who am I, that I should do this? If your Lord is too much for you, do you not know that Stephen is your fellow servant? God taught through Stephen not diminished. If you see these things having preceded in the Gospel, my brothers, let no one say in his heart, Who does that? Behold, Stephen did it: did he do it of himself? Did he do it of his own? But if he did it by the gift of God; did he enter, and close against you? Did he cross the bridge and cut it down? Is it too much for you? Ask and you too. The fountain flows, it has not dried up.

Gentleness towards enemies. Anger is a scorpion. Anger is an enemy, more harmful than other enemies.

And truly, I say to your Charity, my brothers: exercise yourselves, as much as you can, to exhibit gentleness, even towards your enemies. Restrain the anger that spurs you to vengeance. For anger is a scorpion. If it has stirred you with its internal flames, you think it a great thing if you have avenged yourself on your enemy. If you wish to avenge yourself on your enemy, turn to your anger itself: for it is your enemy, which kills your soul. O good man: for I do not want to say "bad man"; I say this better, what I want you to be, rather than what you are: good man, what is your enemy going to do to you? What is he going to do, as much as he can; that God allows him to do everything he desires? He desires to shed your blood. It is indeed difficult, and there are few enemies who are so fierce as to go to the extent of death. Even enemies, when they see those whom they persecute afflicted, are accustomed to convert their anger into mercy. You will rarely find an enemy so fierce as to go to the extent of death. But suppose he does, to the extent of death. Imagine an enemy so fierce towards you to the extent of death. What is he going to do? What the Jews did to Stephen: punishment for themselves, a crown for him. Will your enemy kill you as if you were not going to die, as if you were going to live forever? This is what your enemy is going to do to you, which a fever was once going to do: if he kills you, he will be like your fever. Therefore, by killing you, will he harm you? No: on the contrary, if you die well and love him, something will be added to your heavenly reward. Do you not know how much those stone throwers provided for holy Stephen? Did they know that for kindness a crown was to be given, and for malice punishment to be given? How much did the devil provide? He made all the martyrs for us. But will he go hence? But from his benefits, what he did not want, it will be imputed to him what he desired, not what God was doing with him. Therefore, your enemy, whoever he may be, even to the point of death, will do nothing to harm you.

Anger, our enemy, how much it harms. Anger cannot be destroyed, but it can be restrained.

See what harm anger causes. Recognize your enemy: recognize with whom you fight in the theater of your heart. A narrow theater; but God watches: there subdue your enemy. Do you want to see how truly she is your enemy? I will show you now. You are about to pray to God: the hour is coming when you will say: Our Father, who art in heaven. You will come to that verse: Forgive us our debts. What follows? As we also forgive our debtors. There that enemy stands against you. She blocks the way of your prayer: she erects a wall, and there is no way to pass through. You have said everything well: Our Father. It ran quickly: Forgive us our debts. And what afterwards? As we also forgive our debtors. Behold, the adversary herself contradicts; not before the veil, but within: in the very sanctuary of your heart, there she shouts at you, she contradicts. What kind of enemy is it, brothers, that contradicts? As we also forgive. You are not allowed to rage against your enemy: rage against this one. It is better to conquer anger than to capture a city, says the Scripture. What I said now is written: It is better to conquer anger than to capture a city. Does not a warrior or commander, when he comes upon enemies and finds a fortified city, armed and well-prepared, opposing him, if he captures it, if he conquers it, if he destroys it, seek triumphs? But, as Scripture recounts: It is better to conquer anger than to capture a city. It is in your hand. You cannot kill her, but you can restrain her. If you are strong, conquer anger: and spare the city. I see you are attentive, I know how well you have received it. May God be present in your struggles, so that what you have gleaned from watching the conflict of such a great Martyr may benefit you; just as you saw him victorious and supported the victor, so also may you in your hearts conquer.