Daily Lesson for December 26, 2017

Today’s Daily Lesson on the Feast Day of St. Stephen, the Church’s first martyr, comes from Wisdom chapter 4 verses 7 through 15:

7 But the righteous, though they die early, will be at rest. 

8 For old age is not honoured for length of time,

or measured by number of years; 

9 but understanding is grey hair for anyone,

and a blameless life is ripe old age.

10 There were some who pleased God and were loved by him,

and while living among sinners were taken up. 

11 They were caught up so that evil might not change their understanding

or guile deceive their souls. 

12 For the fascination of wickedness obscures what is good,

and roving desire perverts the innocent mind. 

13 Being perfected in a short time, they fulfilled long years; 

14 for their souls were pleasing to the Lord,

therefore he took them quickly from the midst of wickedness. 

15 Yet the peoples saw and did not understand,

or take such a thing to heart,

that God’s grace and mercy are with his elect,

and that he watches over his holy ones.

On this day of commemorating St. Stephen and his martyrdom, the Church gives us these words from the book of Wisdom which remind us of the meaning of a full life.

Struck down in the prime of his life, Stephen did not live long.  Yet he lived fully. His lived well. He lived a life not great in length, but in depth — not in quantity, but in quality. He lived a life of wisdom and meaning beyond his years. 

Stephen was a model for us — not only in dying, but in living. 

A month before his own martyrdom, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached a sermon with words which may well have been Stephen’s also:

“The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important. If you are cut down in a movement that is designed to save the soul of a nation, then no other death could be more redemptive.”

The martyrs remind us there is something worth giving our lives for, something worth living and dying for. It is always greater than the quantity of our days. For it has within it the quality of eternity. 

As we make plans for our New Year’s Resolutions, we might resolve to find that one thing — so that whether we live or whether we die, it might be said that we’ve done well.