Revelation 22:12-14, 19-17, 20
John 17:20-26
For me and my fellow Deacons, the
story of St. Stephen, as told in the first reading from the Acts of the
Apostles, has a special place in our hearts.
Stephen, whom the Church recognizes as the first martyr for the faith,
is also the patron saint of deacons. He
was one of those seven men, appointed by the Apostles to serve the Hellenist or
Greek Christian widows. Tradition has it
that from this group of seven, the office of Deacon arose. Very quickly, their service
of charity becomes also a service to the word; they become proclaimers of the
Good News about Jesus Christ. One of them
was Stephen, and he was good at it, so effective at bringing new members into
the Christian faith, into the community, that the Jerusalem temple authorities brought him to
trial. Now it was during this trial that
he had this vision of the glory of God.
Now a trial lawyer of our time would warn Stephen to keep this experience
to himself, to exercise his right to be silent.
But like the prophet Jeremiah, this experience, this vision became like
a fire burning within him. Stephen could
not keep it in; he had to proclaim it, and so sacrificed his life for the
faith.
Proclaiming the glory of God is a
constant theme throughout the readings we have had during this Easter season
from the Book of Revelation. Tradition
has it that the Book was written by St.
John the Evangelist, our patron saint. He wrote it while he was in exile on the island of Patmos, a Roman penal colony. The rest of the Christian communities were
under severe persecution by Roman authorities.
It was during this time of crisis that he received this vision of the
glory of God, and tried to put that experience into words that could help the
struggling communities remain faithful to Jesus.
To experience the glory of God,
something so wonderful, so indescribable; I am sure we all think; that it
cannot happen to us. But I would remind
us of this phrase that is in today’s Gospel, in which Jesus says: “And I have given them the glory you gave
me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they
may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me,
and that you loved them even as you loved me.”
From the day of our baptism, we all have been made part of the Body
of Christ; we are loved by Father just as much as He loves the Son. That is the glory of God, which is alive in
each one of us.
But how many of us are aware of
this wonderful, this awesome fact? Or are
we like the seed from the parable of the sower; people who receive the Good
News, but like thorns, we let the anxieties, the fears, the burdens of everyday
life smother the experience of the glory of God. This is the challenge we face, the struggle
we are called to enter into; to pull up those thorns that surround our hearts,
let the glory of God blossom forth, let the wonder of it fill us with joy; let
the beauty of it shine forth from each one of us for all the world to see.
Jesus, through His Gospel, shows us
the way to accept the challenge, to enter into the struggle; if we only will
take the time to read it, reflect on it, and live it. Jesus, through the Eucharist, gives Himself
to us, to strengthen us for the challenge, for the struggle, if we only open ourselves
to him and say, as St. John
did: “Come, Lord Jesus!”
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