Today, 26th of December, we celebrate
Saint Stephen
Ezekiel 37:1-14
The hand of the LORD came upon me, and led me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the center of the plain, which was now filled with bones. He made me walk among the bones in every direction so that I saw how many they were on the surface of the plain. How dry they were!
He asked me: Son of man, can these bones come to life? I answered, “Lord GOD, you alone know that.” Then he said to me: Prophesy over these bones, and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: See! I will bring spirit into you, that you may come to life. I will put sinews upon you, make flesh grow over you, cover you with skin, and put spirit in you so that you may come to life and know that I am the LORD. I prophesied as I had been told, and even as I was prophesying I heard a noise; it was a rattling as the bones came together, bone joining bone. I saw the sinews and the flesh come upon them, and the skin cover them, but there was no spirit in them.
Then the LORD said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus says the Lord GOD: From the four winds come, O spirit, and breathe into these slain that they may come to life. I prophesied as he told me, and the spirit came into them; they came alive and stood upright, a vast army. Then he said to me: Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They have been saying, “Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we are cut off.” Therefore, prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people! I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the LORD. I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.
Psalms 107:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.
Let the redeemed of the LORD say,
those whom he has redeemed from the hand of the foe
And gathered from the lands,
from the east and the west, from the north and the south.
R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.
They went astray in the desert wilderness;
the way to an inhabited city they did not find.
Hungry and thirsty,
their life was wasting away within them.
R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.
They cried to the LORD in their distress;
from their straits he rescued them.
And he led them by a direct way
to reach an inhabited city.
R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.
Let them give thanks to the LORD for his mercy
and his wondrous deeds to the children of men,
Because he satisfied the longing soul
and filled the hungry soul with good things.
R. Give thanks to the Lord; his love is everlasting.
Matthew 22:34-40
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law, tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
«In today’s Gospel, it says that the Sadducees, who were also teachers of the law, ask Jesus a question: ‘Which is the greatest commandment in the law?’ The Gospel says that their goal wasn’t really to know the answer, but to test Him. In other words, depending on His answer, they’d know how to categorize Jesus – either as a faithful and observant Jew or as a heretic who needed to be condemned.
I think there was also a slightly deeper motivation. In a world like the Jewish one of that time, full of rules and regulations – there were hundreds of them – fulfilling them ensured salvation. Deep down, there’s a concern about the relationship with God, an all-powerful lord on whom salvation or condemnation depends. The question of which rules to follow becomes the fundamental question that needs to be answered in order to know where you stand. The future life depends on finding the right answer.
For a large part of the Middle Ages, for many Christians, this was the key question of their lives: Will I be saved or not? How can I be sure I’m on the right path? But the question hasn’t disappeared. Even today, there are still people who ask themselves this question. And they’re not always elderly people.
The best part is in Jesus’ answer. Rather than directly answering the question, He shifts the focus to a different perspective. Where the questioner placed «commandments to be fulfilled,» Jesus speaks of love. Loving God and loving your neighbor are the key elements of the new reality of the Kingdom of God. It’s no longer about rules, commandments, or laws. It’s about love. And, logically, you can’t «love» out of obligation. Love comes from the heart. Love doesn’t need laws and rules. Love is always gratitude because we feel, we experience, that the other has given us much more than we have given. God has given us life. And before Him, we can only be grateful.
Moving from rules and laws to love is entering the Kingdom. Staying in the law is remaining at the door, but on the outside. Go ahead! That door is always open.»
Fernando Torres, cmfAt a time when many people are confused and uncertain regarding the future of the Church, and even of the world, the prophecy of Ezekiel is heartening. God can revive his people, breathe his Spirit into dry bones to make them come alive. Is it not the life of Christ and his Holy Spirit of love that can make the Church and the world face the future with fresh hope?
At the Last Supper, Jesus said: “At this people will know that you are my disciples, that you love one another” (Jn 13:35.) He is speaking not just of any love, but the love by which he loved his disciples, that is, a love that goes to the end, that sets no conditions, that sacrifices everything if necessary for the sake of others. This is the love “with one’s whole heart and mind and soul” and as strong as, or stronger than, self-love, of which today’s Gospel speaks. This is a tremendous task that will never end. Is it this kind of love that moves us?
Lord God, loving Father,
you have bound yourself to us
with strings of love
and let this love appear among us
in human form
in Jesus Christ, your Son.
Let our love,
however limited and hesitant,
reflect a bit the greatness
of the love by which you yourself love us
in Jesus Christ, our Lord.
– That the Church, the people of God, may never cease to proclaim that love of God and neighbor is the heart of the Gospel and that people are God’s gift to us, we pray:
– That people may not lose their hearts in today’s economic systems of profit, efficiency, production and competition but keep giving first place to human relationships of friendship and respect, we pray:
– That in our Christian communities, we may uplift one another rather than tear down, accept one another with trust and affection and go forward together in love and hope, we pray:
Lord God, loving Father,
your own love appeared in human shape
in your Son, Jesus Christ.
In this Eucharist
let him raise our human love
to your level,
that among us
love may no longer be a duty
but our joy and life,
on account of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Lord our God, loving Father,
all love worthy of this name
begins with you and leads to you.
By the love you have shown us
in Jesus your Son,
bring us together
and let everything that we do
become a gift
to you and to one another,
that our love may be greater than death
and that we may live for ever.
In this Eucharist, God has let Jesus warm us with his love. Let its glow shine on everyone around you, with the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
