So they drag Saint Stephen before the Sanhedrin, and make all sorts of false claims against him. If this sounds familiar, it’s because we heard a story just like this during Holy Week! In fact, Stephen is in good company. He is brought to the same place where his Lord Jesus, and later Peter and the apostles, have gone before him. And just like all of them, even with all the lies and accusations flying around him, he is at peace. The source of his peace, is of course, his Lord who has gone before him, that same Lord who now fills him, as the first line of the reading says, with “grace and power.” The peace that fills the martyrs is remarkable, and indicates that they have indeed been called to that kind of witness and are empowered to withstand it by their God.
We too, will be tested in this life because of our faith. It’s the mark, really, of authentic faith. We too, can rely on that same grace and power if we unite ourselves to our Risen Lord. Maybe we won’t be called on to actually give up our lives, but we will are all called at one time or another to suffer in some way when we give that true witness to our faith. Like Stephen and the martyrs, that is our calling, it’s what disciples do, and we can rely on the help of the Lord to get us through it.
Because Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia.
All that we know for sure about St. Blase was that he was the bishop of Sebaste in Armenia during the fourth century. Everything else is legend, which means that it may or may not be true. Even if it’s not true, there is Truth in the legend, because it points us to Christ. St. Blase is, as the author of the letter to the Hebrews says today, one of that “great cloud of witnesses” who helps us to “keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of our faith.” He was known to take up the work of Jesus the healer, as we see in today’s Gospel.
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