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 readers like 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 move along our course to eternal life.
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