Tuesday of the 3rd Week of Easter
Acts 7:51-8:1; Psalm 30:3-4,6-8,17,21; John 6:30-35
Between Stephen’s arrest in yesterday’s reading, and his rebuke of the Sanhedrin in today’s, lies a long lecture from the Spirit-filled orator about the many times God had shown his love to His people, only to have Him and His agents be soundly rejected. The last part of this lecture drew my attention:
the Most High does not live in a house that human hands have built: for as the prophet says:
With heaven my throne and earth my footstool,
what house could you build me, says the Lord,
what place for me to rest,
when all these things were made by me?
(Acts 7:48-50, ref. Isaiah 66:1-2)
Indeed, God does not makes His home in cold and empty churches, no matter how beautiful, but in the loving hearts of all His faithful, no matter how weak and burdened with earthly cares. It is we who bring God-as-Holy-Spirit with us to worship together, and it is He in turn who binds our individuality together into a united community of warmth and light.
But we are fallible, so we should always be open to criticism from within (when the Holy Spirit gently nudges us away from sin) and without (when our friends, relatives and even complete strangers point out ways in which we do not exhibit the very Christian virtues that we loudly extol), and doing the necessary to improve ourselves, just as athletes willingly accept corrections from their coaches. The learned men of the Sanhedrin in today’s reading, sadly, displayed just the opposite disposition.
And in our last days, should we find ourselves alone and beset with sickness and perhaps even “enemy action,” we could do worse than keep faithful as Stephen did, set aside our enmities:
Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
and let ourselves return to the ever-loving embrace of our Creator:
Lord, into your hands I commend my spirit.
_Stoning_of_Saint_Stephen.jpg)
Stoning of St. Stephen
(attr. Luigi Garzi)
Amen.