Thursday 26 December

Saint Stephen, the First Martyr

Acts 6:8-10, 7:54-59, Ps 30:3-4, 6, 8, 16-17, Matthew 10:17-22

The baby and the man

Yesterday all the warm fuzzies surrounding the birth of the baby Jesus. Today the brutal murder of a man who became a disciple of that same baby. Birth and death. Love and warmth. Hatred and brutality. Why does the Church juxtapose these seemingly incompatible feast days? I can find no explanation, but it does serve as a reminder that the Christian life is not so much about “warm fuzzies” as about following the call, the call to follow Jesus the man, not Jesus the baby, and the willingness to pay whatever might be the cost of doing so.