Stephen the Protomartyr ~ the Angel Choir of Christmas Night

Stephen the Protomartyr and Archdeacon

THE CHRISTMAS ANGELS have returned to heaven. The shepherds have gone back to their fields and flocks. And the first day after Christmas turns bloody with the Feast of the Protomartyr and Archdeacon, Stephen. This is because the feast of Stephen is older than the Feast of the Lord's Birth. 

In the evolution of the Christian calendar, Easter of course was the first feast established and celebrated, and then by extension every Sunday as a little Easter. But the first saints days to be remembered were those of the martyrs. Christmas as a feast day would not come along for quite some time.

Yesterday the Master came to us as a man,

And today his servant departs from life.

Yesterday the King was born as a man,

And today his servant is stoned to death,

For the sake of Christ, 

Holy Stephen became the first martyr.

Eastern Christian Kontakion

In the ancient icon seen here, the young deacon, chosen to wait on table for the benefit of widows, is seen wearing a white alb. He is swinging a little thurible, the incense burner the deacon uses at the liturgy while singing intercessions on behalf of the world. In his left hand the holy martyr holds the stones of his martyrdom. 

It's very hard being a Christian in much of the world today. In some countries Christians have stones and curses hurled at them as they approach their church for Mass. This is a good day to remember to pray that Muslims and Christians would love each other and that all the violence would be expunged from religion.

The name Stephen means crowned-one. We're all crowned aren't we? Some people consider their children to be their crowning. But we are first of all crowned with life itself, and faith, and baptism into Christ-life, the friends we have - the people we meet who have loved us and helped us along the way to today. We're crowned with the opportunities life has afforded us and the promises of Christ to the fullness of life - which is an even eternal gift-promise.

Returning to the Nativity Icon with its different elements - here is the angel-choir of Christmas night filling the sky after the shepherds had been directed to Bethlehem.

And suddenly there was with the angel the multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying: "Glory to God! Glory to God in the highest! And peace on the earth!"

Father Rahner says that angels are the entourage of Christ. They are present at the announcement of his conception, at the end of his forty day prayer in the desert, at his suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before his death, at his Easter Rising. Eastern icons place a row of angels at his Baptism, holding towels with covered hands.

But these are serenading angels. Lovely! I imagine we get close to knowing what the song might have sounded like when we hear Handel's Messiah: the Christmas angel-story  sung so memorably there. It is said that German Christmas carols put the Infant Jesus to sleep, while French carols wake him up. We should be sure to sing carols this week, even alone - to put Jesus to sleep, to wake him up - doesn't matter - only that they be sung with love.

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

WE MUST REMEMBER THAT AN ICON DOESN'T TRY to do what a camera would have done, were cameras in existence centuries ago. Icons connect us to the things of heaven - to eternal time. Clocks and watches don't figure when we're standing before an icon. That's why in the icon of the Nativity here, there are lots of pieces or elements of the story conflated into one image. 

It's a wonderful thing to spend earth-time just looking at the Christmas icon. Silence might be the best prayer. Sort it out yourself first. Feel the wonder in it, enjoy the colors and the details, be pleased for the seeming invitation to enter the scene.

During the Christmas Octave (eight-day festal overflow) we'll quite literally zoom in to one or another element of the icon to ponder it together. Recall as well that when we speak of the Christmas mystery it doesn't mean, "Oh just believe it, you can't understand it anyway," but mystery for the Christian means that the clues and the light are so full and near we can miss it.  God has gotten so close to us in the birth of Jesus, it might go un-noticed - perhaps even by myself.

Meanwhile here is the first verse of the Kontakion (Eastern Christian poem/prayer/hymn) for the Feast of the Lord's Birth. We might use it to open up a time of prayerful looking or gazing each morning of the Octave. Again, it is said of Saint Kateri Tekawitha that she prayed more with her eyes than with her lips. And Saint Therese of Lisieux said her prayer was sometimes just a sigh. 

Today the Virgin gives birth to him who is above all being,
and the earth offers a cave to him whom no one can approach.
Angels with shepherds give glory,
and magi journey with a star,
for to us there has been born
a little Child, God before all ages.

And often on the Christmas radio stations we hear the Italian children's carol which translated says:

You came down from the stars,
O King of Heaven,
and came into a cave as cold as ice!
Oh, how much it cost you to love me so! 

In the center of the icon is the Bethlehem cave. It is placed centrally so we don't miss its powerful significance.  But it is not a sentimental significance. At the start of the Christ-story we are already being directed to the end of the story where Jesus' body, having been taken down from the cross, is placed in the tomb hewn out of rock. And it is from that cave-tomb that Jesus will rise in the bright-newness of Easter. Notice that the Infant's bed resembles a sepulcher (tomb) and that in his Gospel swaddling clothes Jesus is symbolically wrapped as on Good Friday.

The cave is a gaping hole in the earth or the wide open mouth taking us in. The cave is that which seeks to swallow humanity - drawing it into the encapsulating power of sin: our wrong-headedness, our destructive folly, our rebellion against goodness, the error of those choices that oppose the God of light and life. God is born into that!

The presence of the cave also suggests that all aspects of creation share in the transfiguring renewal Jesus Christ initiates. Each participates in its own way: the plants, the animals, the people, the earth itself. Notice that the rock seems to radiate light.

At Christmas, pondering the Nativity Icon, we might pray for Christ to be born in hearts cold as ice - mindful of those national hearts that ignore the poor, that contemplate war and its preparations, that make decisions that benefit only the few, that plot evil...

Christ is Born! Glorify Him! 
I send a blessing and good wishes for joy and peace
on Christmas Day!

Intercessions for the Feast of the Nativity

The spot  where Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ

At Christmas,/ we pray for Pope Francis who celebrates his first Christmas as Pope in Rome./ We ask for his safety,/ good health,/ and strength./ We pray to the Lord.

At Christmas,/ we pray for those who make pilgrimage to Bethlehem/ and for all who live in the Holy Land./ For the healing of ancient wounds there./ We ask for Christians,/ Muslims and Jews to love each other./ We pray to the Lord.

At Christmas,/ we pray that we would look up with the shepherds to behold angels/ and to be renewed and strengthened in our service of Christ./ We pray to the Lord.

At Christmas,/ we pray for a peaceful world,/ asking that as God has entrusted to each of us some small part of this earth,/ we would cultivate friendship,/ reconciliation and healing love there./ We pray to the Lord.

At Christmas,/ we pray for our families and our friends./We remember especially those who need some good news these days,/ those who are in any difficulty or trouble,/ who carry great sadness or fear./ We pray to the Lord.

At Christmas,/ we pray for the poor,/ the neglected,/ the sick and the friendless./ We remember the children,/ especially those traumatized by war,/ disease,/ famine or disaster./ We pray to the Lord.

Finally,/ we pray for those who have died since last Christmas,/ asking for them to be led by Light - to the full brightness of God's face in Jesus Christ./ We pray to the Lord.