Our reading from the Acts of the Apostles presents us with two men of faith. The first is Stephen, a man of great faith who had the great courage to witness to the Gospel in the Early Church. He was a deacon in the Early Church in Jerusalem. He was brought before the Sanhedrin for what they considered to be blasphemy. He was the first martyr of the faith in the Early Church. We celebrate he feast day each year of December 26, right after Christmas. The other man we hear about in our reading from Acts today is Saul. He stood there watching and approving of the killing of Stephen. We know that later on, Saul would change his name to Paul. Paul, after his conversion, would become the great missionary to the Gentiles. He would die a martyr’s death himself in Rome. Perhaps Paul’s conversion could be seen as a fruit of Stephen’s prayer at his death: "Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” The blood of the martyrs in the Early Church planted seeds of faith. In the end, both Stephen and Paul had the ability to sacrifice their lives for Christ because in Christ they found all that they had longed for and all that they had hungered for. Jesus was their life. Jesus was their bread of life. Through jesus, they for the courage to witness for the Gospel, even when it mean sacrificing their own lives. Like in the lives of St Stephen and St Paul, may Jesus satisfy our longer and satisfy our hunger so that we ourselves may become the living bread that Christ offers to the world.
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