“Into Your Hands” by Melanie Rigney
Feast of Saint Stephen, the first martyr
As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” (Acts 6:59)
Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. (Psalm 31:6)
“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 are to say.” (Matthew 10:19)
Piety
Jesus, help me abandon my fears and conceits at the altar.
Study
It doesn’t seem quite right, does it? Yesterday, we celebrated the baby Jesus, come to redeem us all. Then today, wham! We are reminded that being a Christian isn’t all about the sweetness of a newborn. It’s also about remembering that following Jesus means laying down our lives, perhaps not as gruesome or as public as His crucifixion, but death all the same. We may not be condemned to stoning as Stephen was, but we all know those moments when we’re the only ones who don’t think something cultural is clever or funny when we face a situation where remaining quiet is the easiest thing to do—but far from the righteous thing to do.
In today’s first reading from Acts, Stephen speaks the truth, and people don’t like it. He doesn’t care. He speaks the words that were given to him, indifferent to what the earthly cost might be. And so, he dies. But those words of truth may have touched ever so slightly the hard heart of one of the witnesses that day. Maybe Saul’s conversion on that road to Damascus would have happened just as it did without Stephen’s words; maybe it wouldn’t have. But Stephen didn’t stop and ponder his remarks. He trusted. May we do the same, each and every day.
Action
Speak truth in a situation where it would be far easier to be quiet or go along.
Image is National Gallery of Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/Rembrandt_van_Rijn%2C_The_Stoning_of_Saint_Stephen%2C_1635%2C_NGA_10046.jpg/512px-Rembrandt_van_Rijn%2C_The_Stoning_of_Saint_Stephen%2C_1635%2C_NGA_10046.jpg
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