From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Of the proving of the true lover   
      
   6. “Strive thou like a good soldier; and if sometimes thou fail   
   through weakness, put on thy strength more bravely than before,   
   trusting in My more abundant grace, and take thou much heed of   
   vain confidence and pride. Because of it many are led into   
   error, and sometimes fall into blindness well-nigh irremediable.   
   Let this ruin of the proud, who foolishly lift themselves up, be   
   to thee for a warning and a continual exhortation to humility.”   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3 Ch 6   
      
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   December 26th - St. Stephen, Proto-Martyr   
   by Father Francis Xavier Weninger, 1876   
      
   PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS.   
   Before I give you some special points for practical consideration, I   
   wish you to observe why the Jews were so much embittered against St.   
   Stephen, that they dragged him out of the city and stoned him. You   
   find no other reason but that the holy Levite preached the truth   
   fearlessly, and laid their vices clearly before their eyes. Ought not   
   the Jews to have given thanks to him and have done penance for their   
   sins? For, what he did, was done only from the desire to save them....   
   He wished them to recognize their wickedness, and therefore secure   
   their penance and with it their salvation. Oleaster, an ancient   
   writer, says, that the same happens today to many preachers, who   
   represent the awful truths of the faith, and duly reproving the   
   prevailing vices, announce the evident danger of eternal damnation in   
   plain words to the unrepentant....  Now to the usual instructions   
      
   I. St. Stephen, during his martyrdom, fixes his eyes on the heavens,   
   and sees them open, and Christ standing at the right hand of His   
   heavenly Father; soon after, he kneels down, in the midst of the hail   
   of stones thrown at him, and prays for his executioners: "Lord, lay   
   not this to their charge." First, learn from this, whither you should   
   turn your eyes, in suffering, that is, upon the Crucifix, as I have   
   already advised you elsewhere, or towards heaven, which is open to   
   you, if you suffer patiently. Jesus is ready to strengthen you, and to   
   reward you eternally, after you have ended your struggle, in   
   submission to His will. Gazing upward will lighten your burden,   
   however heavy it may be, and the contemplation of Christ always ready   
   to strengthen you, will not permit you to become faint-hearted and   
   despondent. Secondly, consider St. Stephen's prayer. St. Maximus   
   writes: "At a moment when another would have forgotten his best   
   friends, the holy Levite thinks of his enemies and persecutors, and   
   prays for them." He had doubtless heard that Christ our Lord had   
   prayed for His enemies, saying: "Father, forgive them, for they know   
   not what they do." This beautiful example of his divine Master, St.   
   Stephen, as a faithful disciple, followed. What are you doing? If you   
   entertain in your heart malice against any one who has wronged you,   
   cleanse your heart from it, and pray yet today for all those who have   
   ever offended you. The example of Jesus Christ, your Saviour, demands   
   it of you, who have not suffered as much as He. "If you say to me,"   
   writes St. Augustine, " Christ could do it, because He was God and   
   man; I cannot, because I am only human; look at St. Stephen, your   
   fellow servant. Was he a man, or was he God? Surely he was only human.   
   He was what you are. Well then, if you cannot follow the Lord, follow   
   your fellow-servant; follow St. Stephen; follow all the holy Martyrs.   
   They were men; they were your fellow-servants."   
      
   II. St. Stephen beholds the heavens open, and enters into it by his   
   heroic martyrdom. Heaven is also open to you; it is open to all men.   
   You, as well as all men, may be saved. There is none who can   
   truthfully say that he cannot gain salvation. Oh! how great a   
   consolation, especially for those who are oppressed here on earth, and   
   have many trials! How great a consolation for sinners! To all men   
   heaven is open; all may enter it; all may gain salvation; because all,   
   with the grace of God, can do what God requires of them. But do not   
   forget, that heaven is open to you only whilst you live; that is, as   
   long as you are in this life, you can do all that is necessary to gain   
   salvation; but after your death, this will be no longer possible.   
   Hence, if you have neglected to work out your salvation, death closes   
   for you the gates of heaven for all eternity. As you do not know how   
   long you will live, or when your last hour will come, you do not know   
   how long, how many weeks, years, months, or days, heaven will remain   
   open to you. There is no day, no hour, in which it may not be for   
   evermore closed. If then it is your earnest desire to gain heaven,   
   postpone not for a day that upon which you know your salvation   
   depends. And to be still more incited to do this, think of this   
   terrible truth: hell is open to receive you, hell is open to receive   
   all men. You may be damned, and there is nobody that may not be   
   damned. Why? You may commit sin, and die in it; and thus be condemned   
   for ever more; for, those who die in mortal sin will be condemned.   
   There is none who is not liable to sin; none who may not die in it,   
   and hence be lost for all eternity. Can you think of this truth   
   without fear? Besides this, think that hell is open to you as long as   
   you live; you may be condemned even in your last hour, because you may   
   even then become guilty of sin. Do you not tremble while earnestly   
   representing hell to yourself? Trembling alone, however, does not help   
   you. You must endeavor to escape hell by works. You can escape it,   
   because you can avoid that which leads to hell; you can do what God   
   requires of you to escape the eternal flames. Well then, work, do   
   everything that you know is necessary to escape hell, and in the same   
   manner, do, in remembrance of heaven, everything that God requires of   
   you to enter there. Say sometimes to yourself: "Heaven and hell are   
   open to me. I can be saved; I can be damned. I will do everything to   
   be saved, and will do it without delay; for I do not know how long   
   heaven will remain open to me. Perhaps I shall die soon; if so, I   
   shall then be able to do nothing further to gain salvation; heaven   
   once closed to me, will never again open its gates to admit me, even   
   if I were to cry a thousand times with the foolish Virgins: "Lord,   
   Lord, open to us." The answer would be: "Amen, I say to you, I know   
   you not." (Matt., xxv.)   
      
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God.  (Matthew 5:8)   
      
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)