Monday of the 3rd Week of Easter (Year C)
† St. Stanislaus, Bishop & Martyr
Acts 6:8-15; Psalm 118:23-24,26-27,29-30; John 6:22-29
Last Saturday, we were briefly introduced to the seven men chosen by the fledgling Christian community to serve as deacons, i.e. to take care of temporal matters while the apostles focused on the spiritual.
But this did not mean that the seven were mundane men. Stephen, in particular, was described by John as:
a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit (John 6:5)
so it should be no surprise that today’s reading opens with Stephen “working miracles and great signs among the people,” and leading to verbal conflict with people from foreign synagogues. John goes on to mention that, being unable to best Stephen, they “procured some men” and “put up false witnesses” to lay serious charges of blasphemy against Moses, God, the Temple and the Law, particularly that Jesus would destroy the Temple and change the Law.
Stephen before the Sanhedrin
Which were probably all true…from their point of view. See, from the tenets of our faith that we proclaim today, I suspect that Stephen actually said that:
- Jesus was the Son of God, and therefore greater than Moses (blasphemy against Moses)
- Jesus was God (blasphemy against God).
As for the rest, they were almost certainly subtle reinterpretations of what Stephen and Jesus actually said, in particular Jesus’ confident prediction about the actions to be initiated against him:
Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up…But he spoke of the temple of his body. (John 2:19,21)
Regardless, Stephen’s reaction to the charges was priceless. Confronted by the laser-like stares of the collective Sanhedrin, his countenance nevertheless “appeared to them like the face of an angel”. No angry denials, no loud curses against the men arrayed against him, just the peace and confidence that comes with placing complete trust in God and His Truth.
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
I was in a similar position almost a decade ago, confronted by an angry customer A who was in hot water with their own customer B. It turned out that A had run my control programs on a version of their test software that I never knew existed, and erroneously classified thousands of B’s devices to be in perfect working order. B in turn built those devices into end-user products…which all failed their own testing. In all fairness, I heard rumors that B was rumbling about “liquidated damages” in the millions, so A was understandably…perturbed.
So I waited for the “hair-dryer” to be switched off, then quietly said that:
- I was sorry this entire fiasco happened, and
- I would modify my software to ensure that, should they run it on anything other than a configuration that I’d personally tested, it would scream bloody murder.
Everybody calmed down after that, and the situation with all concerned parties was resolved amicably. I remember trying to relax my clenched jaw throughout this incident, so no “face like an angel”. Then again, I’m no Stephen.
Lord, give us the wisdom to discern Your Holy Truth in our lives, and the truth behind our interactions with our fellow beings, so that we may deal with others in love and understanding, a shadow of the bottomless love and understanding you show to us poor sinners every day. Amen.