For I believe that my own Saint Stephen is praying for me now… And I know this, because how else could you explain a transformation as spontaneous and inexplicable as mine?
I never used to know very much about Saint Stephen in the years of my life prior to my conversion, which occurred through Grace and no merit of my own…
But since my conversion, I have become very attached to this Saint…
Saint Stephen was the first martyr of the Catholic Church. It was Saint Stephen who was stoned to death for proclaiming Christ as the Risen Lord. And it was Saint Paul, who at that time was called Saul, who was the young man who approved Saint Stephen’s death…
Prior to his death – using his very last words – we are told… “And falling on his knees, he cried with a loud voice, saying: ‘Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.’ And when he had said this, he fell asleep in the Lord. And Saul was consenting to his death.” (Acts 7:59).
You see, with Saint Stephen’s last breath he prayed for his attackers. Among his attackers was Saul – a young Pharisee who desperately hated Christians and worked to exterminate them with the same brutal determination as Hitler propagated the Holocaust of the Jews millennia later. And at the time it appeared that nothing at all happened. After all, Saul killed Saint Stephen and kept on killing. He killed countless other Christians with brutal determination and a fanaticism that seemed unshakable.
But Saint Stephen’s prayers for Saul continued into eternity. And God heard those prayers. And those prayers for Saul led to the TRANSFORMATION of Saul. You see, Saul became Saint Paul and Saint Paul changed the world because it was Saint Paul who spread the word of God throughout the world.
You see, when Saint Stephen was speaking, the Pharisees - including Saint Paul - could not respond. They had no counter argument to make. Their only defence was that they “stopped their ears” (Acts 7:56)…
“But he (Stephen), being full of the Holy Ghost, looking up steadfastly to heaven, saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And he said: ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.’ And they crying out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and with one accord ran violently upon him.” (Acts 7:55-56).
They could not deflect TRUTH, so instead, they tried to shut it out.
Saint Paul shut it out. And I can imagine him closing his ears – holding his hands over his ears like a little child as though by creating such a barrier he would somehow stop the transformation that was inevitable in HEARING truth…
And I have been thinking about that today as I think about all the people who I love and who have gone to Heaven before me. For I believe that my own Saint Stephen is praying for me now… And I know this, because how else could you explain a transformation as spontaneous and inexplicable as mine?
And when the time comes for my to enter into my Father’s House, I shall see the Saints who prayed for me and I shall be humbled by the Christian love of my Blessed Lord, which is reflected through the prayers of His Saints…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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