Monday, December
26, 20116 Stephen, First Martyr 1st Reading: Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59
Gospel: Matthew 10:17-22
Jesus said to his disciples, “Be on your guard with respect to people, for they will hand you over to their courts and they will flog you in their synagogues. You will be brought to trial before rulers and kings because of me, and so you may witness to them and the pagans.
“But when you are arrested, do not worry about what you are to say and how you are to say it; when the hour comes, you will be given what you are to say. For it is not you who will speak; but it will be the Spirit of your Father in you.
“Brother will hand over brother to death, and a father his child; children will turn against parents and have them put to death. Everyone will hate you because of me, but whoever stands firm to the end will be saved.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
As early as this time of the Yuletide rejoicing the gospel warns us of the consequences of following the newborn child. These consequences are scary. With even family members as possible traitors, the conclusion is inevitable: hatred towards a disciple can come from anyone. That’s not all. The same Gospel warns us that pain can be bodily inflicted since discipleship can take a follower to martyrdom.
Because the prospects are scary the disciple should rethink his options before following Christ. Should he opt to follow Christ he must be committed. Commitment here is all about strong relationship with God. Sometimes we call it “religion” from the Latin “re-ligare”. The meaning is “to tie up once again” what has been snapped in order to keep us connected with the ever gushing source of our strength. Religion, however, can worsen the gap between the person and God when misunderstood as a body of rituals to be observed in isolation from other people.
To achieve its purpose religion must be exercised as an intersection of horizontal and vertical relationships: one between God and myself, and the other between fellowmen and myself. The cross is precisely the emblem of the Christian Religion because the relationships involved intersect like the cross, with its vertical beam representing relationship with God and its horizontal beam representing relationship with one another.
Christian commitment then, takes an added dimension of relationship with one another. Where these relationships are strong, perseverance comes as a matter of course because God himself stands as the guarantor. May the feast of the first martyr, St. Stephen inspire us to keep our commitment strong by loving God as much as we love one another! – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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