A time for Martyrdom; the followers of Christ!

A time for Martyrdom; The followers of Christ!

As we read about St. Stephen, deacon, and the soldier of Christ, so each of us must be willing to become like him, ready to give ourselves for the Church.  Stephen, the first martyr to stand for the Truth of what the birth of Christ means for the world.  

If Christmas was the joy to the world that culminated in the passion/death/resurrection of Christ it behooves all of us to take up our cross and become one like him who suffered and died that we would inherit eternal life.   (Jn 19: 25 - 30). 

No one likes to think of death as a requirement to enter heaven, yet that is exactly the path each one will walk.  It is a certainty that our departure from human life to a spiritual existence is imminent.  When is the question?  Stephen didn’t know, but he was ready and set the pace for all who would testify by word and example.  (Acts 7: 54 - 60).

Martyrdom doesn’t always come through a sword of noose.  Our very willingness to stand for the truth that is Christ and the right to life in all its tenets also challenges those who believe in humanity and the task of evangelization for human life from conception to bodily death.  

Perhaps the prominence of giving up ourselves appears too easy until it confronts our very being.  How many can say that they are ready to sacrifice themselves for the life of the unborn, prisoners on death row, and the intense poverty throughout the world that now covers our own nation?  

Standing for something that the Woke and New-age generations are working to destroy has become the same scenario that Stephen stood for right before he was stoned to death.   No one needs to look for a possible pathway to offer themselves up for Christ; If we are ready it will find us and the answer to should I say or do something for the rights of others will stare at us directly and wait for an answer without pondering its consequences.  

Stephen’s martyrdom and our remembrance of it is always fresh in our minds since it is December 26th.  There are many others on the calendar of martyred saints that if we search diligently will be able to read about.  It can be interesting and compelling to share their stories and see they were not special persons but people who believed in something beyond themselves.  St. Paul, St Joan of Arc, St. Lawrence deacon, St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher, and St. Maximilian Kolbe. to name several.  Each one stood up and presented their lives to Christ for the truth.

Ralph B. Hathaway