Tuesday of the Third Week of Easter
(Acts 7:51-8:1a; John 6:30-35)
Stephen hardly seems “filled with the Holy
Spirit” as he castigates the Jews in today’s first reading. However, it should
be remembered that the altercation has grown bitter. A previous passage reads that Stephen’s
adversaries paid people to testify against him with insidious lies. St. Luke, the author of Acts, wants to show
how Stephen imitates Jesus when the latter uttered similar disparagements
against the Pharisees.
Stephen also imitates Jesus as he is being
stoned to death. Like Jesus, he asks the
Lord Jesus to pardon his executioners and entrusts his spirit to the same
Lord. Something even more significant is
in Luke’s mind here. The evangelist has
written that Jesus’ death eventually brought the Holy Spirit upon his disciples
to complete his mission in the world. With
Stephen’s execution, Luke presents Saul (i.e., Paul of Tarsus). This Pharisee will become the principal instrument
of Jesus’ message to the non-Jewish world.
Luke shows his readers (that is, us) that
the mission is inexorable. Whether we
join it or not, it will go on because it is propelled by the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, it behooves us to join because with
it we begin our course to eternal life.
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