Saint Stephen , Promartyr

 

Dear Fathers, Brothers, Sisters in Christ,

Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59
 Psalm 31:3cd-4, 6 and 8ab, 16bc and 17
 Matthew 10:17-22

 

Stop, just stop!"

 Stop the shopping, stop the cooking, stop everything and please, please, let me enjoy for just a little while longer, the wonder of the true meaning of Christmas.

 "What," you say, "THIS is the true meaning of Christmas?"

 How can that be?

 

 How could today's First Reading about a gentle and lovely man being stoned to death on account of the newborn baby, be the true meaning of Christmas? This baby who just yesterday held me in His warm out-stretched arms.

 

 Could Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds, the Angels, all of us, have been so duped?

 

 Yet, in our heart of hearts we know it to be true. The Word becoming Flesh is not a "feel good" story, but the difficult loving necessity in God's plan for our salvation.

 Father Ed Bakker
 Anglican Catholic Church / Original Province
 Mission of Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne
 Bendigo
 Australia