[ Today's Readings ]
When they hand you over,
do not worry about how you are to speak
or what you are to say.
If we aren't spending all of our time planning what we are going to say it isn't because we have the faith of Saint Stephen. More likely, it is because we aren't concerned about being handed over to situations where we have to be a witness for Jesus. Yet even the extreme form of this isn't something we should dismiss off hand. Society may well eventually require martyrdom from us as witness. But even if it does not, the complex minefield of friend and family often requires witness of us. So giving witness to Jesus isn't something we should dismiss off hand. We aren't going to get off the hook for it. Each of us will face circumstances where, in addition to the witness of our lives, we are required to witness with words. How do we not freak out and rely on God to give us those words?
You will be given at that moment what you are to say.
For it will not be you who speak
but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Saint Stephen embodies this. He is thrust into the hardest of situations. He faces the lies of his antagonists before he faces their violence. Responding from his own resources would be reactionary and probably defensive. If his speech was prepared a large part of it would probably be to protect both ego and body. It would miss the big picture because it was too concerned with addressing the individual arguments of his opponents. But Stephen's secret is precisely that he sees the big picture.
“Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man
standing at the right hand of God.”
This perspective is how he is able to use his words for genuine teaching. It keeps him from becoming reactionary. It allows him to even pray for the people who stone him. His self-interest and limited perspective are not limits for him because he sees behind the scenes to the deeper truth of Jesus reigning in heaven. He isn't on his own and so he doesn't have to act like it. He is able to entrust all he is to God.
Into your hands I commend my spirit;
you will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God.
I will rejoice and be glad because of your mercy.
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