The second day of Christmas is the Feast of Saint Stephen, deacon and first martyr of the Church. Stephen's last words before he died were a prayer for those who were stoning him, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Thus, he proved himself worthy to bear the name of Christ who commanded, "But I say to you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you" (Luke 6:27-28) and who himself prayed from the cross, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).
As we celebrate the coming of the Prince of Peace and sing of peace on earth, good will to all, we would do well to embrace the daily witness/martyrdom of peaceableness. Here is something along those lines from Gregory of Nyssa ( c.335-386):
As a bonus for thr Feast of Saint Stephen, here is one of my favorite songs of the season:
Third Day of Christmas: Jesus = the Self-utterance of God
First Day of Christmas: How God Brings His Love to Bear
As we celebrate the coming of the Prince of Peace and sing of peace on earth, good will to all, we would do well to embrace the daily witness/martyrdom of peaceableness. Here is something along those lines from Gregory of Nyssa ( c.335-386):
He is our peace, who has made both one. Since Christ is our peace, we shall
be living up to the name of Christian if we let Christ be seen in our lives by
letting peace reign in our hearts. He has brought hostility to an end,
as the apostle said. Therefore, we must not allow it to come back to life in us
in any way at all but must proclaim clearly that it is dead indeed. God has
destroyed it in a wonderful way for our salvation. We must not, then, allow
ourselves to give way to anger or bear grudges, for this would endanger our
souls. We must not stir up the very thing that is well and truly dead, calling
it back to life by our wickedness.
But
as we bear the name of Christ, who is peace, we too must put an end to all
hostility, so that we may profess in our lives what we believe to be true of
him. He broke down the dividing wall and brought the two sides together in
himself, thus making peace. We too, then, should not only be reconciled with
those who attack us from without, we should also bring together the warring
factions within us, so that the flesh may no longer be opposed to the spirit
and the spirit to the flesh. Then when the mind that is set on the flesh is
subject to the divine law, we may be refashioned into one new creature, into a
man of peace. When the two have been made one we shall then have peace within
ourselves.
The
definition of peace is that there should be harmony between two opposed
factions. And so, when the civil war in our nature has been brought to an end
and we are at peace within ourselves, we may become peace. Then we shall really
be true to the name of Christ that we bear.
When
we consider that Christ is the true light far removed from all falsehood, we
realize that our lives too should be lit by the rays of the sun of justice,
which shine for our enlightenment. These rays are the virtues by which we cast
off the works of darkness and conduct ourselves becomingly as in the light of
day. Then, when we refuse to have anything to do with the darkness of
wickedness and do everything in the light, we ourselves shall also become light
and our works will give light to others, for it is in the nature of light to
shine out.
But if we look upon Christ as our sanctification, then
we should keep ourselves free from all that is wicked and impure both in
thought and in deed and so prove ourselves worthy to bear his name, for we
shall be demonstrating the effect of sanctification not in words but in our
actions and in our lives.
Third Day of Christmas: Jesus = the Self-utterance of God
First Day of Christmas: How God Brings His Love to Bear
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