St Anselm is the saint we celebrate today. Anselm dedicated his life to God and to the faith, just like different disciples of Christ in the early Church that we have been hearing in our readings in the Acts of the Apostles throughout the Easter season. Anselm was born in the kingdom of Burgundy in the early 11th century in the Roman Empire. He became a Benedictine monk in the Normandy region. He was named as the Archbishop of Canterbury in England at the age of 60. Even though Anselm was a monk and abbot, he is now remembered as one of the great theologians of Western Christianity. He is known as the Father of Scholasticism, a method of learning and reason that was employed in philosophy and theology for hundreds of year. Anselm spent many years in exile while serving as Archbishop of Canterbury trying to defend the faith against kings who overruled him and asserted their own will. I remember writing a paper on the proofs of God’s existence that Anselm put forth in a course I took in medieval philosophy while studying for the priesthood. The following quote from St Anselm reflects his steadfastness of his faith: “O Lord: my heart is made bitter by its own desolation; sweeten it by your consolation. I beseech you, O Lord, that having begun in hunger to seek you, I may not finish without partaking of you. I set out famished; let me not return unfed.”
Our reading from the Acts presents us two great men of faith. Stephen, was a man of great faith who had the courage to witness to the Gospel in the Early Church. He served as a deacon in in Jerusalem. He was brought before the Sanhedrin, accused of blasphemy. He was the first martyr in the Early Church. We celebrate Stephen’s feast day on December 26, right after Christmas. Then we have Saul, who stood there watching and approving of the killing of Stephen. We know that later on, Saul would change his name to Paul. Ater his conversion, Paul would become the great missionary to the Gentiles. Paul died 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. Through Jesus, they for the courage to witness for the Gospel, even when it mean sacrificing their own lives. May both these men inspire us on our journey of faith.
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