therefore I see Him sitting at the right hand of the Father. To you this testimony has been given from the heavenly things: but if you do not believe, what have I done to you? 'The heavens opened declare the glory of God' (Ps. XVIII, 2); and shall I keep silent about the mercy of my Christ? I see Christ sitting in His glory, standing for my salvation; He is my witness in the heavens: shall I not be His witness on earth? 'If I shall have confessed Him before men, He also will confess me before His Angels: but if I shall have denied Him on earth, He too will deny me in the heavens' (Luke XII, 8, 9). But for so many faithful testimonies you hurl stones, you close up your mind, you are unwilling to hear me speaking things whole and manifest to you. Stephen's prayer to Christ for himself.
Strike, strike with stones the one confessing: I have my helper at the Father's right hand. You strike my head; I commend my spirit to Him. 'Lord,' he says, 'Jesus, receive my spirit.' These curse; do You bless: these persecute; do You receive the persecuted one. Not without cause, O my Jesus, my Lord, do You deign to stand for me at the Father's right hand — You whom I have known and believed to sit at the Father's right hand. It is for me that You deign to stand, You who by standing do not fail, You who by helping me do not forsake. You, my Lord, sent me into the midst of my enemies, You deigned to make me the first martyr after Your ascension: if You wish that I not fall away from You, help me. Let the bruising of the stones cease;
let not the strength of my members fail in me. For it is on my behalf, my Lord, that You make appeal while You stand. I hear the embassy of Your voice; I believe, I receive, I acknowledge You interceding for me before the Father, granting and helping; that my faith may not fail in following You. What do You say, my Jesus, my Lord, in asking on my behalf before the Father? 'Father, behold, here is the first follower, who has entered the world's new arena for my sake: grant mercy, that he may come to victory. Let my sheep perceive me helping her; lest she deem me a betrayer in the midst of the wolves.' 'Behold,' he says, 'I see Him standing, I take it for granted that He asks on my behalf.' And therefore, my Lord, who await my contest, receive my spirit.
Truly, because I do not fear, O Lord, the one who stones my members, receive my spirit into everlasting rest. Among these men I have been counted as a sheep for the slaughter: with You may I be laid in the rest of sweetness and peace. The Jews were stoning, this man was groaning; the Jews were smiting his head, this man was commending his spirit. His prayer for his enemies. What did this prayer avail? But when concerning his commended spirit he began to be secure, for his enemies he became an advocate. And not as he asked for himself, so did he intercede for his enemies. Here he was standing, when he beheld Christ: here he bent his knees, when he prayed for his enemies. For that very intercession was necessary, on behalf of such and so great enemies.
For he knew that the Lord Jesus could not quickly hear him; but on account of their sin, not on account of his own merit. Therefore, for the so great iniquity of the Jews who were stoning him, he bent his knees, poured out tears, saying: 'Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.' See, whoever you are that are a Christian, how this sheep in all things follows the Lamb, and imitates the Shepherd. The Lord Jesus Christ, hung upon the cross, cried out: 'Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit' (Luke XXIII, 46): this man says, 'Lord, receive my spirit' (Acts VII, 59). The Lord Jesus Christ for His enemies cried out: 'Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do' (Luke XXIII, 34): this man says, 'Lay not this sin to their charge' (Acts VII, 60).
And manifestly, my brethren, in the midst of those who were stoning him, he who raged the more, the blessed apostle Paul, was present. If therefore vengeance upon the stoner had then been granted to Stephen, how would the Church have had such a master? Having said these things, he gave up his spirit, ascended into heaven, merited pardon for his enemies, and merited to rejoice in the heavens over the friendship of the blessed Paul who followed after: because He Himself is the Lord, 'who makes the barren woman to dwell in a house, the joyful mother of children' (Ps. CXII, 9). Behold, this holy Stephen merited, who saw the Son of Man standing, whom we have known to sit at the right hand of the Father. Let us entreat Him to intercede for us, and for our sins;
and that He may deliver us from so many perils and from all our travails, for the sake of His own goodness, not for the sake of our conscience. For what fountains, or how great, can extinguish the flame of our sin? May He deign to bury our crimes: that, as in the new tomb He committed His members for a little while, so in the fountain of indulgence He may bury our sins, that with you we may ever rejoice in the most holy Church. Amen. Sermon 215. On the Nativity of Saint Stephen. The effect of Christ's Nativity. Yesterday we celebrated the Nativity on which the King of martyrs was born into the world: today we celebrate the Nativity on which the first-in-rank of the martyrs departed from the world.
For it was fitting that first the Immortal should take on flesh for mortals, and thus the Mortal should endure death for the Immortal. And therefore the Lord was born, that He might die for the servant: lest the servant should fear to die for the Lord. Christ was born on earth, that Stephen might be born in the heavens. The Lord entered the world, that Stephen might enter into heaven. The Most High descended to lowly things, that the lowly might ascend to lofty things. The Son of God became the son of man, that He might make the sons of men sons of God. Christ wrought miracles; Stephen too wrought them: but Christ wrought without Stephen; could Stephen at all work without Christ? Stephen lived by Christ, as the branch by the vine.
Do you marvel at the fruit hanging from the branch? Behold the branch flowing from the vine. On account of the confession of Christ, Stephen is stoned. Come now, holy Stephen, say something to the Jews, that you may begin to be stoned, and may be able to be crowned. Hurl words, and receive stones. Say something about their uncircumcised hearts, and you will die by stones. Say something about Him whose name they refuse to hear. Let them blush and rage, let the deceitful lips be made mute (Ps. XXX, 19). Tell them where you see alive the One whom they mocked crucified. Tell them where you see Him, and here you do not live; but with Him you will live better. Tell them that it is nothing that they have done; He lives whom they slew. Tell them that you see standing at the right hand of the Father Him whom they mocked hanging on the cross.
And he said: 'Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.' But they, crying out, stopped their ears. They closed their ears, and ran to the stones, and all made an assault upon him, and were stoning Stephen as he called upon the Lord, and said: 'My soul has cleaved after You' (Ps. LXII, 9), because my flesh is stoned for You. 'Receive my spirit' (Acts VII, 58-59): and render to me Your promise. After Christ's example he prays for his enemies. Christ prayed for those who crucified Him; Stephen too prayed for those who stoned him. The Lord Jesus prayed fastened to the wood; Stephen with knee bent. He who standing commended his own spirit to the Lord, prayed with bended knee for their offense.
He prayed to the Lord for his enemies, as a friend, saying: 'Behold, I suffer, I am stoned, they rage against me and gnash at me; but lay not this sin to their charge: because — that I may say this to You — it is from You that I first heard it. I Your servant suffer; but there is a great difference between me and You. You are Lord, I am servant; You are the Word, I am a hearer of the word; You are Master, I am disciple; You are Creator, I am creature; You are God, I am man. There is a great difference between the sin of these who stone me, and that of those who crucified You. When therefore You said, ''Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,'' You asked for a great sin, and You taught me to ask for the least. Lord,' he says, 'lay not this sin to their charge': as though he were saying, I suffer in the flesh;
let not these men perish in mind. They were hurling stones, and holy Stephen was pouring out prayers. Great is the piety, brethren, great the mercy! In every way, such things as he had eaten at the table of his Lord, these same he made ready at his own banquet. For it is written: 'You have sat down at a great table; know that it behooves you to prepare the like' (Sirach 31:12). Therefore he offered such things in prayer as he had eaten at his Lord's table. The Lord Jesus Christ said, 'Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do' (Luke 23:34); holy Stephen said, 'Lay not this sin to their charge'; and having said this he fell asleep (Acts 7:60). O sleep of peace! What is more tranquil than that sleep? What is more restful than that slumber?
What manner of man was he going to his friends, who so loved his enemies? 4. To Stephen's prayer is owed the conversion of Saul. For that your Holiness may know how much the prayer of the holy martyr Stephen availed, return with us to that young persecutor named Saul, as we heard from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles while it was being read: who, when holy Stephen was being stoned, kept the garments of all who stoned him, so that he might be seen to stone him as it were by the hands of all, since he set them all bared for the stoning. This man, as he went on his way, suddenly a light from heaven shone round about him; and falling to the ground he heard a voice from heaven saying to him: 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?'
'It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.' And he said: 'Who art thou, Lord?' And the Lord to him: 'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest' (Acts 9:3-5). What have I to do with thee? Why dost thou rise up against me to thine own hurt, and dost not rather humble thyself to thine own good? For the great evils which thou hast committed against me, I ought indeed long since to have destroyed thee; but Stephen my servant prayed for thee. 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?' But because thou ragest against my name, I will make thee my servant. 5. Saul's crime is both pardoned and avenged in him. O Saul, ravening wolf, thou hast eaten: wait a little, and thou shalt digest. I will say it plainly: the son of perdition has been cast down;
and there has been raised up a vessel of election. For if holy Stephen had not so prayed, the Church would not have Paul today. But therefore was Paul raised up, because upon the earth holy Stephen bowed down was heard. Therefore what Saul did, Paul shall suffer; what the persecutor did, the preacher shall suffer; what the wolf did, the lamb shall suffer: for thus must it be avenged in such a man. Let him learn to suffer what he used to do, and let him himself feel what he inflicted on others. It is said to Ananias by the Lord Jesus Christ: 'Go to him and mark him with my seal; for he shall suffer many things for my name's sake' (Acts 9:15-16). Ananias went, baptized Saul, and made Paul; he baptized the wolf, and made the lamb;
he baptized the persecutor, and made the preacher. We have begun to have as a preacher him whom holy Stephen had as a stoner. Thus therefore was holy Stephen heard, so that by his prayers there might be blotted out the sin which Saul had committed. Let us therefore commend ourselves to his prayers. For much more now is he heard for those who venerate him, who was thus heard even then for those who stoned him. SERMON 216. On the Nativity of holy Stephen, VII. 1. Stephen while dwelling here beheld the Trinity. The magnificent solemnity of the martyrs constrains our affection to hand over to you the precious seeds of the divine word. Wherefore we ask that you prepare your hearts for the heavenly rain; that, casting forth your seeds, you may bring forth fruit a hundredfold.
Today therefore we celebrate the holy day of the most blessed martyr Stephen: not the day whereon he was born to the world, but that whereon through his passion he passed to heaven. He merited the great glory of the divine word, that he might both render the Levitical honor well-pleasing, and consummate an outstanding martyrdom. His soul received in the heavenly kingdoms a twofold sanctity of grace (because he lived holily unto God upon the earth), according to the saying of Solomon (Proverbs 31:21). We have heard the voice of the blessed Apostle: 'For I have espoused you,' he says to Christians, 'to one husband, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ' (2 Corinthians 11:2). But blessed Stephen merited to love Christ; so that he merited to see Him from earth in heaven, even as he says, 'Behold, I see the heaven',
'opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God' (Acts 7:56). O pure heart, which knew God well! Now that gospel proclamation which is said concerning the stone that had been rejected, 'This is become the head of the corner' (Psalm 118:22), was fulfilled. And again, 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God' (Matthew 5:8). See what the most blessed Stephen merited after his bodily departure, who while yet placed here in the body merited to see the Trinity itself. 2. Stephen's wondrous charity toward those who stoned him. Then the Jews, estranged from the life of the saints, resolved to stone blessed Stephen. The Jews were stoning the man of God; he, gazing upon God, was praying. He was gazing upon the divinity;
and the Jews were exercising their own savagery. Stones came upon him like showers of rain; and he, with knees fixed, prayed for the offenses of a wicked people. Blessed Stephen prayed for their sins; and they set no pity upon him. What art thou doing, Saul? Why dost thou rage as a martyr against a martyr; since thou too shalt be stoned by the hands of others? The Jews were stoning; and Saul was keeping their garments. Blessed Stephen was entreating God for their iniquities: he who received from the Lord Christ such a name, whereby the crown of martyrdom might portray his triumph. For thus through the Greek tongue he received the name of 'crown,' which in Latin is interpreted 'perpetual life.' And therefore, turned with me, let us beseech the most blessed Martyr of Christ;
that by his merits he may implore for us a crown in perpetual life, that we may be with him unto ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 217. On the Nativity of holy Stephen, VIII. 4. Since I see our discourses bound up with stylus and wax, and we are by no means fit to read aloud, help me, I pray, by your intercession before this Martyr, whom Gamaliel arrayed in a robe revealed, Saul stripped and stoned, and Christ wrapped in swaddling-clothes enriched, and crowned with a precious stone. Triumphal is this day, most blessed ones, triumphal is the day of holy Stephen the martyr.
Condemned to death by those who stoned him, he was cast down with a stone outside the city, slain in body, wounded in the head, shattered by the stone, and crowned by the corner-stone. Fair was the minister, because fair was also the Master; fair everywhere was this Stephen, in heart and body. Of the Master's beauty it is sung in the Psalm, 'Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men, grace is poured out upon thy lips' (Psalm 45:2): and to him too we sing in the Psalm, 'In thy comeliness and thy beauty go forth, proceed prosperously, and reign' (Psalm 45:4). To Stephen the martyr, therefore, there was both beauty of body, and the flower of youth, and the eloquence of one discoursing, and the wisdom of a most holy mind, and the working of divinity.
Great was the envy that had arisen among the Jews on account of the cause of the Christian profession. 2. For the Jews saw Stephen, a Jew, in the midst of the Jews, in the metropolitan city of his forefathers, disputing against the sacred rites of the Jews, and against the sacrifices, and against the Law; and against circumcision, and against the sabbaths. Rising up in wrath, and conceiving venomous thoughts, they spoke among themselves such words: 'What is this? What is this? What are we doing? What are we accomplishing? What are we saying? What does this man mean, this young and fair man, this most eloquent and most wise man? For this man works great signs and wonders, and Christ has died a man without cause. Come,' they say.
'brethren, and let us gather together at once into one place; let us take counsel, let us confirm false testimony. We have done against the Master; let us also do against the servant. We said against the Master, It is expedient that one man should die, rather than that the whole nation perish (John 18:14); let us say against the servant, Let us exterminate him from the land of the living, and let his name be remembered no more (Jeremiah 11:19). When we took counsel against Jesus, we profited ourselves much; because we prevailed. We surrounded, we bribed, we received, we bound, we handed over, we overcame, we oppressed, we crucified. To the lover of covetousness we gave money, which each of us drew off from the mammon of iniquity.'
'We bound the incomprehensible Son of virginity, we handed over to a judge the judge of equity, we overcame Him who overcomes the empire of vanity, we oppressed Him who oppresses the pride of calamity, we spat upon the face of holiness, and we crucified in our blindness the Son of majesty. We slew Him, we buried Him, and sealed His sepulchre with our ring; but we found it unsealed by an angel. We handed over the sealed sepulchre to guards to keep, and to those who saw the miracle of the resurrection we gave money, that they might lie to Pilate, and we produced testimonies; and to our confusion, though watchful, we were left without Him.' 3.
'But now also,' they say among themselves, 'O men, what are we doing, what are we accomplishing, what are we saying, we who slew one Christ, and behold many Christians? Behold,' they say, 'from the one Christ slain by us, there are two hundred of his disciples. Of our own number even Nicodemus is our priest, and three and five thousand men have run to their baptism: they have baptized many Jewish and Greek and barbarian nations, and set them over their sanctuaries. Behold, and what is worse and more grievous for us, they have ordained seven deacons, among whom one who is called Stephen, both young and fair and most eloquent and most wise above all, is full of the signs of miracles;'
'and if he is full, it must needs be that our people flow together to him, and to our confusion he be magnified among all the Jews, unless he be stoned by our hands. Why then,' they say, 'do we yet stand? Whom do we await? Why do we delay? Let us publicly seize this Stephen, the public revealer of our confusion, and drag him to the council. Let us set him in our midst, let us throw him into confusion before the pontifical synod, let us overwhelm him with most false testimony, let us do to the minister what we did to the master. For if we did not hesitate to pierce the master with a lance, we ought not to hesitate to stone Stephen.' And all the Jews, men of impiety, ever ready for murder, consented. They seize Stephen, and lead him to their council.
They agitate and confound and interrogate him; they hear and attend to him. They hear the most wise one, and they behold the most comely one. 40. O Jews, ever enemies of God, attend well, you who judge not well. 'If then in truth you speak justice, judge rightly, O sons of men' (Psalm 58:1). Attend together, O pontiffs, and ministers, priests and peoples; all together, O Jews, attend to the face of the minister of God, attend to the face of Stephen, if you can. For Moses on account of your blindness set a veil against his own face: but Stephen, to your confusion, before your assembly announces the sacrament of the resurrection.
But, O Jews, envious of the Prophets, faithless to the martyrs, we wonder in no wise at you that in many things you accord with your iniquities. For you who despise the face of the lawgiver, take up the person of the accuser. You who despised the face of Moses the lawgiver, have taken up, O Jews, the person of a most cruel accuser; and to your disgrace you ever add your crime. And your Moses, when he set a veil against his own holy face, was unwilling to see your criminal face: but Stephen with unveiled face contemplated in heaven the glory of the Son of God; therefore the Jews saw his countenance as it were the countenance of an angel of God. 5.
And now, blessed martyr Stephen, despise the earth, behold heaven, spurn the high priest, attend to the Father; despise the Jew and the priest and the people; behold in heaven the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Yet make known to the Jew what that is which thou dost long contemplate in heaven. 'Behold,' says Stephen, 'I see the heavens opened' (Acts 7:56), 'and Jesus whom you crucified, whom you mocked as He was dying, whom you laid down in the sealed sepulchre, Him I see standing at the right hand of the Father.' What then did it profit you, O Jews, that you crucified the Son of God, and stone the martyr of the Son of God? Behold, you are doubly overthrown;
for you have lost your city, and lost the very chief of the stoners, and out of the holy city your plant has been uprooted. For there was fulfilled in Judaea that accursed Davidic curse: 'Therefore shall God destroy thee to the end; He shall pluck thee out, and remove thee from thy dwelling, and thy root from the land of the living' (Psalm 52:5). But the crowds of the Jews made silence, and with the damnable animosity of serpents' teeth they gnashed over the martyr Stephen, whom they held in their heart like a serpent, and they cast the holy Martyr headlong outside their city, sending forth witnesses beforehand, uttering falsehood.
They rage, they strip, they cast their garments before Saul's feet, and they run with stones, they raise their forearms, they aim their arms, they hurl the rocks. And the unjust stone the just man as he sinks down, praying and saying: 'My Lord Jesus, my revealer, my defender, for whose sake the naked stoner rages against me; hear me, hear, O my holy one, Son of the Virgin, living Stone, who to hear me — that one stoner might believe — is one the less; behold me,' he says, 'me cleansed by the laver of thy fount, consecrated without stain by the grace of thy salvation, stripped for thy name's sake, stoned by human hands, but not separated from the love of Saul: and lay not this sin to their charge, O merciful one, even unto the end.'
Thus holy Stephen, dying, fell asleep in eternal peace, with Christ Jesus, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 218. On the Nativity of the holy Innocents, I. 1. The Magi come from the East. Christ therefore having been born according to the faith of prophecy in Bethlehem of Judah, in the days of King Herod, certain men from the parts of the East, of the race of the Magi, coming, inquired of Herod where indeed was the king of the Jews who had lately been born: affirming that they had seen His star in the East, which had also stood forth to them as a guide of their journey; and that the cause of so great a haste was to adore and venerate the newly-brought-forth king.
Having heard these things, he was incredibly terrified, fearing and dreading lest the standing of his empire should be imperiled. Therefore, having called and summoned the doctors of the Law, inquiring, he asked where they hoped the Christ was to be born. But when from the oracles of Micah the place of His nativity was designated as at Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), by one decree the king commands all the suckling boys, not only at Bethlehem, but also in all its borders, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the Magi, to be slain and destroyed (Matthew 2:5,16); if by any means he might also extinguish Jesus along with those of like age. But the child, carried off into Egypt, forestalled the king's snares, His parents being warned by an angel foretelling the king's guile. 2.
The felicity of the Innocents. And so the deceiver King Herod, mocked by the Magi, sends into Bethlehem and into all its borders, that the boys from two years old and under be slain. The little ones are slain for Christ, innocence dies for justice. O how blessed the age, which cannot yet speak of Christ, and already merits to be slain for Christ; not yet fit for the wound, and already suited for the passion! How happily born were they, to whom at the first threshold of their birth eternal life came to meet them! They incur indeed, amid the very beginnings of the light they had received, the peril and end of safety; but from that very end they straightway take the beginnings of eternity. Immature indeed they seem for death; but they happily die unto life.
Scarcely had they tasted the present, when straightway they pass to the future; not yet having entered the cradles of infancy, they already arrive at their crowns. They are indeed snatched from the embraces of their mothers; but they are rendered to the bosoms of Angels. 3. Herod's error and foolish terror. Nothing then hast thou accomplished, O audacity of most ferocious austerity: thou canst make martyrs, thou canst not find Christ. The unhappy tyrant thought himself to be thrust down from his kingly throne by the coming of the Lord and Savior. But it is not so. Not for this had Christ come, to invade another's glory, but to bestow His own. Not for this had He come, to seize an earthly kingdom; but to confer a heavenly one. He had not come to snatch away powers and dignities; but to endure contumelies and injuries.
Not for this had He come, that He might prepare that sacred head for a diadem of gems; but for a crown of thorns. Not, I say, for this had He come, that He might be set up magnificent above sceptres; but that He might be crucified in mockery. 4. His disturbance and deception. At the Lord's birth, therefore, Herod is troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. What wonder, if at the birth of piety impiety be disturbed? Behold, the armed man dreads Him lying in the manger; the proud king trembles at the humble one; the man clad in purple fears Him wrapped in swaddling-clothes. With dissimulation he addresses the Magi: 'Go,' he says, 'search out concerning the child; and when you have found Him, bring me word again, that I too may come and adore Him' (Matthew 2:8). He feigned that he wished to adore Him whom he was striving to slay.