Reflections
“Persecuted But Not Crushed.”The disciple of the Apos tles (which we technically call Church Father) by the name of Tertullian wonderfully describes “the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christianity”. Nowadays, we hear of persecuted Christians everywhere. Some are killed, some are judged, some are dis placed and some are maligned.This is the same story we hear from the first reading today. St. Stephen, our first martyr, was stoned to death after preaching to the Jews the good news of Jesus. They “cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears and rushed upon him together”. Je sus, in the gospel, inspires his dis ciples, that even in sufferings, the Spirit would come to their aid.The Spirit of Christmas re minds us that “God is on the side of the suffering” (JPII, Cross ing the Threshold of Hope) and that“God who became flesh and dwelt among us would know understand the pangs of human suffering.Indeed, the blood of St. Ste phen encourages us to look at Jesus. With Jesus, we may be persecuted, but we are not crushed (cf 1 Corinthians) © Copyright Bible Diary 2019