Monday, December 29, 2025

 

Memorial of Saint Thomas Becket, Bishop and Martyr

(II Timothy 2:8-13.3:10-12; Matthew 16:24-27)

The twentieth century poet T.S. Eliot wrote a play about today’s patron saint, Thomas Becket.  Titled Murder in the Cathedral, the play paints a vivid picture of the bishop-martyr’s final days.  A section called “Interlude” presents Archbishop Becket last sermon.  It is a tour de force combining a heightened spiritual consciousness with beautiful prose

Archbishop Becket is preaching his Christmas homily in his Canterbury cathedral.  He says that this Mass celebrates not only the birth of Christ but, being the Eucharist, his death as well.  For this reason, the archbishop proclaims, the occasion is one of both joy and sorrow.  There is joy, of course, because the Savior has come.  However, sorrow accompanies the joy because every Mass reenacts the death of Christ on the cross to atone for human sin.  Becket explains that the Church has placed the Feast of St. Stephen, the first martyr, on the day after Christmas so that Christians temper their celebration with a realization of their weakness.  Then the archbishop foretells his own martyrdom.

Most of us love Christmas.  Every year we look forward to its air of friendliness and generosity. But we must not allow the conviviality of the season to turn into debauchery.  Even more important, we should contemplate how full joy only comes from living the self-sacrificing love that Jesus Christ showed on the cross.

 

Monday, December 26, 2016

Feast of St. Stephen, proto-martyr

(Acts 6:8-10.7:54-59; Matthew 10:17-22)

“Is it an accident…,” St. Thomas Becket asks in his Christmas sermon according to playwright T.S. Eliot, “that the day of the first martyr follows immediately the day of the Birth of Christ?”  Not at all, he goes on to say.  Martyrdom is the design of God to draw humans back to the love which the birth of Christ reveals.  In other words, the Church proposes today’s Feast of St. Stephen as a reminder that Christ was born to die out of love for the world.

Although many households take down their Christmas lights today and stores haul out Valentine decorations, the Church does not intend that her members go back to life as usual.  Rather, she wants them to realize that they are being called deeper into the mystery of holiness which does not shun the world but seeks to sanctify it. 

Celebrating what is good and expressing sorrow when the good is thwarted by evil, we Christians show others of God’s care for all.  Christmas festivities will continue until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, but we should temper them by understanding how material substances are readily corruptible while virtue lasts forever. 

Homilette for December 26, 2007

Wednesday, Feast of St. Stephen, Proto-martyr

(Acts 6:8-10;7:54-59)

The play Murder in the Cathedral tells the story of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1170. Half-way through the play, the archbishop delivers his Christmas sermon. He tells the congregation that in the Christmas mass not only the birth of Jesus but also his passion and death are remembered. This dual remembrance indicates that the Christian life is neither pure joy nor pure sorrow. We live both on every occasion. Thomas goes on to ask, “Is it an accident … that the day of the first martyr follows immediately the day of the Birth of Christ?” No, the Church deliberately places the martyrdom of Stephen on the day after Christmas to temper our celebration. We must keep in mind the dual sentiment of Christian life.

Unless people think that the dual sentiment is solely the invention of the Medieval Church, we can point to the same duality in both Luke’s and Matthew’s Nativity accounts. In Luke after Jesus is born his parents take him to the Temple where the holy man Simeon makes the foreboding prophecy that Jesus will be a sign to be contradicted. In other words, Jesus’ enemies will do him in. In Matthew the horror is more obvious. Jesus’ birth occasions the jealousy of King Herod. To eliminate his rival Herod has all male infants of the area two years and under murdered.

We must take to heart the traverse sentiments of Christian life. Our happiest celebrations like a dear friend’s birthday should not ignore the fact that fellow humans are suffering often dire need. Similarly, our most intolerable burdens like the loss of a loved one should not go without faith in Christ’s victory over sin and death. Christians are neither rosy-eyed optimists nor unrelenting pessimists. No, we live both the death and the resurrection of the Lord deep in our hearts everyday.