Audience: Prayer and the strength to face persecution
Prayerful
meditation on Sacred Scripture in communion with Jesus and his Church
can help us face all of life’s difficulties and even persecution, just
like St Stephen, the first Christian martyr. Continuing his series of
lessons on prayer in the Acts of the Apostles, Pope Benedict XVI focused
his Wednesday audience catechesis on Acts Chapter 6, Stephens discourse
before the Sanhedrin, delivered before his death.
Forty
thousand people thronged St Peter’s Square, and speaking to English
pilgrims the Pope noted: “Stephen’s words are clearly grounded in a
prayerful re-reading of the Christ event in the light of God’s word”.
In
comments in Italian, Pope Benedict recalled how Stephen was "one of the
seven chosen for the service of charity". Accused of saying that Jesus
would destroy the Temple and the customs handed down by Moses, Stephen
responds by presenting Jesus as the Righteous One proclaimed by the
prophets, in whom God has become present to humanity in a unique and
definitive way”.
"Stephen’s discourse before the court, the
longest of the Acts of the Apostles develops from this prophecy of
Jesus, who is the new temple, who inaugurates the new cult and replaces
the ancient sacrifices with the offering of himself on Cross. Stephen
wants to show how unfounded the accusation made against him of having
subverted the law of Moses and illustrates his vision of the history of
salvation, the covenant between God and man. He thus re-reads the
biblical narrative, the itinerary contained in the Holy Scripture, to
show that it leads to the "place" the ultimate presence of God, which is
Jesus Christ, especially His Passion, Death and Resurrection. In this
perspective, Stephen also reads his being a disciple of Jesus, following
him to martyrdom. "
Stephen’s meditation on Sacred Scripture
helps him understand his present reality. "In his speech Stephen begins
with the call of Abraham, a pilgrim to the land indicated by God and
which was only a promise; he then passes to Joseph sold by his brothers,
but assisted and freed by God, to arrive at Moses, who becomes an
instrument of God to free his people, but who also on several occasions
encounters the rejection of his own people. In these events narrated in
Sacred Scripture, which Stephen religiously listens to, God, who never
tires of encountering man despite often finding stubborn opposition,
always emerges. "
"In all this he sees a foreshadowing of the
story of Jesus, the Son of God made flesh, who - like the ancient
Fathers - encounters obstacles, rejection, death." In his meditation on
the action of God in salvation history, Stephen highlights the perennial
temptation to reject God and his action and says that "Jesus is the
Righteous One announced by the prophets; in Jesus, God himself is
present in such a unique and definitive way: Jesus is the true place of
worship. "
Stephen does not deny the importance of the temple,
"but stresses that God does not dwell in houses made by human hands. The
new temple in which God dwells is his Son, who took on human flesh, it
is the humanity of Christ, the Risen One who gathers the people and
unites them in the Sacrament of his Body and his Blood. "
"The
life and discourse of Stephen is suddenly interrupted by his stoning,
but his very martyrdom is the fulfillment of his life and his message:
he becomes one with Christ." Before he died, he asks for Jesus to
receive his spirit, and like Jesus asks God "not to hold this sin"
against those who stoned him.
St. Stephen drew the strength to face
his persecutors to the point of the gift of himself "from his
relationship with God" and "meditation on the history of salvation, from
seeing the action of God, which in Jesus Christ came to the summit. "
So "our prayer must be nourished by listening to the Word of God."
He
also "sees foreshadowed, in the history of the relationship of love
between God and man, the figure and mission of Jesus He - the Son of God
- is a temple" not made with human hands " where the presence of God
the Father came so close as to take on our flesh to bring us to God, to
open up the gates of Heaven to us. Our prayer, then, must be the
contemplation of Jesus at the right hand of God, of Jesus as Lord of
our, of my daily, existence. In him, under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, we too can turn to God with the trust and abandonment of
children who turn to a Father who loves them infinitely ".
Pope
Benedict concluded: “As the Son of God made man, Jesus is himself the
true temple of God in the world; by his death for our sins and his
rising to new life, he has now become the definitive “place” where true
worship is offered to God. Stephen’s witness to Christ, nourished by
prayer, culminates in his martyrdom. By his intercession and example
may we learn daily to unite prayer, contemplation of Christ and
reflection on God’s word. In this way we will appreciate more deeply
God’s saving plan, and make Christ truly the Lord of our lives”.
"I
greet all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at today’s
Audience, including those from England, Ireland, Norway, Sweden,
Nigeria, Australia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Canada and the
United States. I offer a cordial welcome to the delegation from the
Christian Council of Norway and to the ecumenical groups from Sweden. I
also thank the traditional choir from Indonesia for their song. Upon
you and your families I cordially invoke God’s abundant blessings".
