In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, amen. Christ is born. Today
we have a concurrence of a number of important
events and persons that we commemorate today.
We've heard in the Gospel about the flight into
Egypt of the Holy Family. the murder of those
innocent young boys in Bethlehem. It also is
the feast of St. James, who's involved in the,
he's mentioned in the epistle, as you probably
noticed, that Paul said he conferred with Peter
and James, the brother of the Lord. That epistle
to the Galatians is universally recognized as
being the first of St. Paul's epistles. So James
occupied a prominent place in the church in Jerusalem.
We see him also mentioned in the Council of Jerusalem
in the 15th chapter of the Book of the Acts of
the Apostles. So we have James, and we also have
St. Stephen. Whenever I think of the Feast of
Stephen, I always think of one of my favorite
Christmas carols, Good King Wenceslaus, who went
out on the Feast of Stephen and has a delightful
moral at the very end. You who now remember the
poor shall yourselves find blessing. The flight
into Egypt. Some of the commentators and the
fathers see an irony in that When the wise men
came from the east, guided by a star, and every
year there's always speculation about what that
star might have been. This year was an interesting
concurrence. You probably know that Jupiter and
Saturn were aligned for the first time in 800
years for that celestial greeting for our Lord's
nativity. And whatever that event was that drew
them to Bethlehem, it also drew them from the
East. The East, of course, represents first of
all the Assyrians, and then later, several hundred
years later, the Babylonians, who of course oppressed
the Jews and were in a state of warfare with
them periodically. And the irony is that the
leaders of these nations, they were the instruments
for God's bringing the Jewish people back to
the pure observance of their religion, that the
leaders of these nations were the ones who came
and offered their gifts to the newborn king,
recognition by even the pagan persecutors of
the Israelite people. of their newborn king.
And then the other irony is that Joseph and Mary
go with the child Jesus, and also, by the way,
if you look at many of the icons of the flight
into Egypt, you see a young man, teenager or
a fellow in his early 20s, who's leading the
donkey or accompanying them on their journey.
This is commonly believed to be... James, the
brother of the Lord, who was very likely the
son of Joseph by his previous marriage, Joseph,
of course, himself being a widower. And so the
Messiah goes to Egypt, which was the oppressor
of the Jewish people, and there he symbolically
announces his presence, the Redeemer, to that
nation. Some of the accounts in early Christian
literature, they're not in the New Testament,
they're not canonical, but they make delightful
stories to me. When the Holy Family came into
Egypt, the idols crumbled and the palm trees
bowed down for Jesus and the Holy Family as they
were on their way into Egypt. So we have this
flight into Egypt. and the murder of the Holy
Innocents, St. James, the brother of the Lord,
and St. Stephen. I want to say a couple words
about Stephen. He, of course, is one of the deacons
that was ordained. This event is related in chapter
6 of the Acts of the Apostles. And then that
magnificent speech of Stephen. which is given
in chapter 7 of the Acts of the Apostles, where
he brings back to memory the history of the Jewish
people and their dealings with God. The God of
glory appeared to Abraham, and he relates the
story of the patriarchs, and in more detail,
the story of Moses and God's dealing with Moses.
God appeared in the burning bush and inspired
Moses to lead his people out of Egypt to freedom
and how the Israelites turned to other gods and
Israel's disobedience to God. In St. Stephen,
the fundamental point is that he appeals to the
Jewish people, his hearers, to tell them and
to underline that Jesus did not subvert the law
of Moses, but he fulfilled it. And the crowds,
of course, got increasingly annoyed at Stephen's
words, that he said, you persecuted and even
killed prophets who predicted the coming of the
righteous one, and now you have betrayed and
murdered him. So they were determined to stone
Stephen to death. They lay their coats at the
feet of a young man, Saul, who again, the connection
here, becomes Paul the apostle. And as Stephen
was being stoned, he prayed that the Lord would
receive his spirit and forgive his killers. And
he said, I see the Son of Man sitting at the
right hand of God. And that's how he ended his
earthly days and became the first proto -martyr.
So we have the individuals, the innocents who
were killed, Stephen who was killed later, and
James who also met his end after witnessing to
Christ. We're surrounded by all these important
events. This is a marvelous time of the year.
that the joy of Christmas, the joy of our Lord's
Nativity, continues throughout this period, what
we prepared for for 40 days, in effect continues
until our Lord's presentation in the temple 40
days after his birth on the feast of the presentation.
So let us ask today for these individuals whose
blessed memory is brought to our attention once
again the Holy Innocents, Joseph, James, and
St. Stephen on the Feast of Stephen to grant
us the joy that they experienced in their dealings
with and relationship to the newborn King, to
whom be glory and honor forever and ever. Amen.