FEAST OF ST STEPHEN - 26TH DECEMBER 2025

Fr Billy Swan

Today is the Feast Day of St Stephen, the first martyr to die for the Christian faith. We are familiar with his story from the Acts of the Apostles (chapters 6-7) – how he was ordained as one of the first deacons to help with the charitable distribution of goods in the early Church; how his holiness and gifts attracted the attention of the Jewish authorities who brought him to trial where he was falsely accused of blasphemy, condemned and stoned to death. The last detail in the story of his life is how his executioners lay their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul who entirely approved of the killing. This was the man later known as Paul who converted to Christianity and became one the great greatest missionaries in the history of the Church.

When I was younger, I always found it odd that the feast of a martyr would be celebrated the day after Christmas Day. It seemed a strange shift of gears liturgically. One day we are celebrating the birth of the infant Saviour and the next we are faced with the violent death of the first martyr saint.

The reasons why we celebrate the feast of a martyr immediately after the birth of Christ is to show how Jesus’ birth has made possible our birth to eternal life. To put it differently, our faith tells us that that Christ’s coming down on earth has made possible our ascension into the life of God or the life of heaven. In the words of St Athanasius, 'God became human so that we would become divine’. In the Office of Readings today, St Fulgentius of Ruspe explains it this way:

‘Yesterday our king clothed in his robe of flesh left his place in the virgin's womb and graciously visited the world. Today his soldier leaves the tabernacle of his body and goes triumphantly to heaven…And so The love that brought Christ from heaven to earth raised Stephen from earth to heaven; shown first in the King, it later shone forth in his soldier. Love was Stephen's weapon by which he gained every battle, and so won the crown signified by his name’.

Friends, it is not just Stephen who participates in this mystery but all of us who are baptized. Christ goes before us and invites us to share in his life. It is through him and because of him that we can dare to hope and to look forward to the things that he has promised. It is a firm invitation never to take for granted the forgiveness and graces he won for us. What Jesus is by nature, he has given us a share of, by grace. That is why the two celebrations – Christ’s birth and Stephen’s death are placed side by side on the liturgical calendar.

There are other important features of the life of St Stephen for us to ponder. Stephen was chosen as one of the first deacons. The order of deacons was invented by the early Church as a response to a need, namely that the Apostles be freed up to meet their primary responsibility which was dedication to prayer and preaching. For us priests, this is a hugely important message to be reminded of. If we are too busy to pray and preach, well then, we are simply too busy. Period.

Lastly, from the words of Stephen at his trial and death, they strike us as being very similar to the final words of Jesus himself – ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’ (Stephen); ‘Father into your hands I commend my spirit’ (Jesus); ‘Lord do not hold this sin against them’ (Stephen); ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do’ (Jesus). For the Christian, Jesus Christ goes ahead of us on the journey and we participate in his fate and destiny. We recognise his story in our story and our story in his story. This is what we see with Stephen. He is brought to trial like Jesus, asks that his killers be forgiven like Jesus and commends his spirit to the Father like Jesus. Can you recognise any aspects of your life in that of Jesus? Can you recognise any of his life in yours? If you can then rejoice. He is closer to us that we can possibly imagine.